Veterinary clinicians prefer template-style reports with personal confidence estimates for cytologic sample evaluations.

Objective: To examine preferences of veterinary clinical pathologists, clinicians, and students for cytology report formats.

Sample: 24 clinical pathologists, 1,014 veterinarians, and 93 veterinary students who were members of the Veterinary Information Network.

Methods: Members of the Veterinary Information Network responded to an online survey invitation, made available between July 11, 2023, and July 24, 2023. Respondents were randomly directed to 1 of 4 sets of cytology reports, each containing a traditional narrative format, narrative format with terms expressing a degree of confidence and associated numerical ranges, and template format with similar estimates of confidence. Respondents ranked the reports in order of preference and then provided comments about their top-ranked choice. Responses were analyzed mostly with descriptive statistics or comparisons of proportions.

Results: 14 of 24 clinical pathologists preferred the traditional narrative format, whereas 449 of 1,042 veterinary clinicians and veterinary students preferred the template format. Respondents (460/1,131) ranked the template format as most preferred, but the narrative format with terms expressing a degree of confidence ranked highest overall. Many respondents appeared to misunderstand the degree of confidence estimates being expressed numerically. Respondents choosing each format often stated that their preferred choice was "easiest to understand" and "most comprehensive."

Clinical Relevance: Given the preferences of veterinary clinicians and veterinary students for a template format, clinical pathologists should consider modifying the way they report evaluations of cytologic specimens. Template formats should help standardize reporting of cytologic specimens, thereby improving communication between clinical pathologists and clinicians. However, both clinicians and clinical pathologists need to better understand the purpose of terminology expressing degrees of confidence in such reports.