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Colposcopy Dilemma in Washington-Reply
Allen Dietrich, MD;
Konrad Kotrady, MD
Dartmouth Medical School and Dartmouth Hitchcock Community Health Center Hanover, NH
Arch Fam Med. 1994;3(5):402.
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In reply
We are pleased to have sparked a debate on adding new procedures, specifically colposcopy, to family practice and thank the correspondents for their attention. In our editorial, we stated that we are "less enthusiastic about adding [colposcopy] to the basic list of family physician skills" than about adding sigmoidoscopy, pulmonary function testing, smoking cessation counseling groups, and endometrial biopsy. We are for cautious individual practice decisions about colposcopy, not, as Drs Harper and Ferris suggest, against colposcopy as a basic family practice skill.
Dr Harper addresses the questions we pose for a family physician to answer in considering whether to add a new service. This physician planned to identify 30 patients per year in need of colposcopy. The physician may indeed wish to purchase a colposcope and train staff to assist, especially if an alternate source of colposcopy services is difficult to access. The literature is limited on the benefits
. . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]
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