Pathology Case Screening Resources
Practical guidance on the Pathology Vulnerability Assessment, pathology diagnostic process failures, and how the PVA fits into your case strategy. Written for attorneys by a PA(ASCP) with 28 years of surgical pathology practice and 15 years of laboratory operations experience.
Understanding the PVA
The Pathology Vulnerability Assessment is a fixed-fee, attorney-facing case-screening tool. Before your firm commits to physician expert review, full discovery, or litigation escalation on a pathology case, the PVA helps answer the threshold question: is there enough here to justify going further?
What Is a Pathology Vulnerability Assessment?
A structured explanation of the PVA methodology, the four-domain review framework, the two scope levels (Screening and Case Development), and how the PVA fits into case strategy before physician expert retention. Includes the five case posture designations and what each means for next steps.
Read the full article →The Pre-Analytical Phase: What Attorneys Need to Know
Published laboratory quality literature consistently identifies the pre-analytical phase as the most common source of laboratory error — occurring before the specimen reaches the bench. This article explains what the pre-analytical phase covers, why it is frequently unexamined in expert review, what documentation to request, and how a pre-analytical finding changes the litigation posture of a pathology case.
Read the full article →Diagnostic Discordance in Pathology: What Attorneys Need to Know
When the original pathology report and a subsequent opinion reach different conclusions, you may already have one of the most consequential findings in the case. This article explains what discordance is, how the PVA classifies it across five levels, what the boundary is between record analysis and diagnostic adjudication, and what discovery to target when discordance is identified.
Read the full article →Additional Attorney Resources in Development
Additional attorney-facing resources on pathology diagnostic process issues in litigation are in development. Check back for new articles.
Ready to screen a pathology case?
The Screening PVA answers the threshold question before your firm commits to broader expert review. Fixed fee. Single deliverable. Complete analysis across all four PVA domains.