Goals

The objective of CytoBase is to build and maintain a comprehensive electronic medical record of cervical cytology reports and associated data.

The data are available to cytotechnolgists and pathologists at the time they examine smears to improve the accuracy of cervical cytology diagnoses and to ensure that abnormal findings are properly investigated and not lost to follow up.

CytoBase also serves to provide information to, and manages information for, the Ontario Cervical Screening Program to ensure that individual women are periodically reminded, through their physicians, to have a Pap Smear.

The information stored in the database is also used to enhance the reliability and accuracy of cervical testing and to provide statistical information for epidemiological studies. In the future, it is expected that it will be possible to derive indices to monitor the efficacy of health care service delivery with respect to cervical disease.