New viscoelastic testing requirement in checklist
September 2023—A proficiency testing accreditation requirement in the new checklist edition was revised to add clarification, and a new requirement on viscoelastic testing will close an existing gap.
Webinars and Sponsored Roundtables — Register Now
Wednesday, July 15, 2026, 1:00-2:00 PM ET
Hear an expert discuss how to integrate Kappa and Lambda in situ hybridization testing into your standard hematopathology workflow to accurately assess B-cell and plasma cell clonality. You will also gain the skills to recognize testing pitfalls in challenging reactive versus neoplastic proliferations and apply ancillary tools to resolve complex cases.
Webinar presenter Xiaojun Wu, MD, PhD, Assistant professor, Director of Hematopathology Section at NCR of Johns Hopkins Medicine Department of Pathology, SOM at Johns Hopkins University
Moderated by: Bob McGonnagle, Publisher, CAP TODAY
Tuesday, July 21, 2026, 11:00-11:30 AM CT
Learning Objectives:
- Explain how transparency and manufacturer partnerships improve quality, consistency, and decision-making confidence in specimen management.
- Evaluate blood collection tubes beyond cost and commodity assumptions, incorporating clinical impact and risk into decision-making.
- Assess the potential risk points when using a blood collection device that has not been cleared for a specific purpose.
Roundtable presenters Nick Fingland, PhD, PMP, Senior Director, R&D Operations and Science, BD, and Chris Farnsworth, PhD, D(ABCC), Section Head of Clinical Chemistry, Professor of Pathology and Immunology, Washington University School of Medicine.
Moderated by: Bob McGonnagle, Publisher, CAP TODAY
Wednesday, July 29, 2026, 1:00-2:00 PM ET
Learn about digital pathology technology that is future-ready, yet practical for today’s
laboratory needs.
Webinar presenters Scott Hammond, Senior Systems Consultant, Digital Pathology Division, Wexner Medical Center-Department of Pathology, and Ursula Hofer, Imaging Technologist, Pathology Digital Imaging Lab, Wexner Medical Center-Department of Pathology.
Moderated by: Bob McGonnagle, Publisher, CAP TODAY
Subspecialties
Interactive Product Guides
Proficiency testing (see also CAP programs/products/services)
What’s required in ’23 for predictive marker tests
September 2022—Beginning next year, two additional predictive marker tests will require enrollment in proficiency testing (PT), but for any predictive marker using immunohistochemistry or in situ hybridization, only laboratories that perform both staining and interpretation must participate in CAP-accepted PT.
Gastric HER2, hsALK to join monitored PT list
September 2021—Beginning next year, CAP-accredited laboratories that perform HER2 immunohistochemistry in gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma or highly sensitive (hs) ALK in non-small cell lung cancer will be required to enroll in proficiency testing for those analytes.
At POC and in lab, 2 new checks on SARS-CoV-2 testing
November 2020—The CAP released in September its proficiency testing program for SARS-CoV-2 antigen testing, with the first shipment to laboratories set for Nov. 30. It also introduced recently a Quality Cross Check program that makes it possible for labs performing nucleic acid amplification testing for SARS-CoV-2 to monitor performance across multiple instruments, in compliance with the CMS directive prohibiting proficiency testing on multiple instruments.
Cytopathology in focus: Gynecologic cytology PT appeals: where they started,where they stand
May 2020—The CAP implemented proficiency testing for cervical cytology in 2006 as mandated by federal legislation. The performance of participants and granting of appeals on glass slides in the first year of the CAP Pap PT program was reported in detail by Crothers, et al. Once a participant initiates an appeal, the slide in question is pulled from the program for a blinded review by three board-certified anatomic pathologists who are members of the CAP Cytopathology Committee. In the first year, 155 participants failed the PT examination and appealed their testing results on 86 individual slides. After review, appeals were granted for 21 slides, resulting in 45 exam failure reversals. The overall appeal rate was 13/1,000 slides in the program.
DIY or Survey? Identifying interfering substances
October 2017—The interfering substance: Whether it’s in-laws on your doorstep or lipemia in your specimen, it has to be addressed. Ask Michelle K. Zimmerman, MD. These days, Dr. Zimmerman uses the CAP Interfering Substance Survey to detect the presence of hemolysis, lipemia, and icterus in clinical chemistry samples at Indiana University School of Medicine, where she is an assistant professor of pathology and laboratory medicine. But before her laboratory started using the Survey, how did it handle those interferences?
For NIPT laboratories, a new proficiency test in 2018
September 2017—The CAP Surveys program is offering for 2018 a novel external proficiency test for laboratories that perform screening of cell-free (cf) DNA in maternal plasma for common aneuploidies.
Glucose PT criteria reset stirs standards debate
June 2016—It may not be an exact science, but resetting standards is a long-established means of improving quality of testing, and it can also be a way of adapting to improvements in quality that have already been realized. In the case of the CAP’s recent tightening of proficiency testing criteria for hospital glucose testing, both purposes are at work.
Proficiency tests on multiple instruments: CMS clarifies regs
March 2016—If a laboratory does not perform its proficiency testing in accordance with a recently reiterated CMS directive regarding PT on multiple instruments, its standing with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services could be at stake. In fact, “You could be sanctioned directly by the CMS,” says Thomas Long, MPH, CAP director of biostatistics.
3 new NGS Surveys on CAP 2016 PT launchpad
November 2015—More than two years ago, when the CAP decided to move forward with proficiency testing for next-generation sequencing, the decision point was modest. “We estimated that about 35 labs would subscribe, based on survey information, and that was sufficient for us to move forward,” says Karl V. Voelkerding, MD, chair of the CAP Next-Generation Sequencing project team.