Email Correspondence with Link to Survey Monkey for Participation in Acute Leukemia Survey

Communications Materials – Acute Leukemia Survey

Email Correspondence with Link to Survey Monkey for Participation in
Acute Leukemia Survey
Dear Laboratory Director:
The College of American Pathologists (CAP) is collaborating with the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention (CDC) on a cooperative agreement, “Improving the Impact of Laboratory Practice
Guidelines: A New Paradigm for Metrics.” The CAP and the CDC invite you to assist us in
accomplishing our goal by examining current practice patterns for the workup of acute leukemia
cases by completing this important survey. The responses to the online survey will serve as a
baseline to assess various practice patterns.
The CAP is currently developing an evidence based guideline on the workup of acute leukemia.
After the guideline is published, a post-dissemination survey will be developed and issued to
assess changes in practice and uptake of the guideline (i.e., at some future time, you may be
contacted again to participate in a post-survey and focus group).
Survey Instructions
The survey should take no more than 20-30 minutes of your time. Response to the survey is
completely voluntary. The survey is designed in a way so that each question needs to be
answered. The survey will not allow you to save your answers and complete at a later date. We
kindly ask each individual at your laboratory who signs out hematopathology cases to complete
the survey by visiting (insert survey link). The survey will remain open until (date TBD, and
will be finalized upon OMB approval).
Thank you for responding to the 2015 Acute Leukemia Practices and Procedures Survey. The
survey results will be published in the future as part of the CAP and the CDC cooperative
agreement. Your responses will remain anonymous and will not be used to identify any laboratory
or individual. All information collected in this survey is kept in a secure manner. No individual
answers will be shared with the CDC. The final report in the publication will not contain any
identifying information, preventing the linkage of specific laboratories with survey results.
If you have any questions, please email the CAP Pathology and Laboratory Quality Center at
center@cap.org.
Sincerely,
Raouf Nakhleh, MD, FCAP,
Chair, CAP Guidelines Metric Expert Panel

Lisa Fatheree, SCT(ASCP)
Director, CAP Pathology and Laboratory Quality Center

CAP Today for the Acute Leukemia Pre-Survey (The news brief is
intended to be included in the Newsbytes section. CAP Today
publishes monthly)
The College of American Pathologists (CAP) is collaborating with the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention (CDC) on a cooperative agreement, “Improving the Impact of Laboratory Practice
Guidelines: A New Paradigm for Metrics.” The CAP invites laboratories to assist in its goal of
examining current practice patterns for the workup of acute leukemia cases by completing an
online survey.
Help us understand the various practices for the workup of acute leukemia by participating in the
survey.
If you are interested in participating, please contact the CAP Pathology and Laboratory Quality
Center at center@cap.org. Responses provided by survey participants will be kept anonymous.
The CAP plans to publish the overall survey findings as part of the CDC cooperative agreement.

CAP Pathology and Laboratory Quality Center
Quarterly Newsletter
The CAP Pathology and Laboratory Quality Center is participating in cooperative agreement with
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to increase the effectiveness and adoption
of laboratory practice guidelines.
As part of the cooperative agreement, “Improving the Impact of Laboratory Practice Guidelines: A
New Paradigm for Metrics,” the Center invites laboratories to assist in the CAP’s goal of
examining the current state of practices to accurately diagnose acute leukemia by completing an
online survey. This survey will obtain baseline information on the workup of acute leukemia.
Following the development of the CAP and the American Society of Hematology (ASH) guideline,
“Algorithm for the Workup of Acute Leukemia,” the survey will be redistributed to determine
changes in practice.
Please contact the CAP Pathology and Laboratory Quality Center at center@cap.org if you are
interested in participating in the survey. All responses will be kept anonymous. Overall survey
findings will be published as part of the CDC cooperative agreement and will be used to help
improve adoption of evidence-based laboratory practice guidelines.

CAPconnect – Blog (Possibly from Dr. Tracy George)

There is a great deal of variation among pathologists in how acute leukemia is worked up leading
to variation in practice, costs, and time to diagnosis. As you may know, the College of American
Pathologists (CAP) is currently developing an evidence based guideline to provide
recommendations on the workup of acute leukemia.
In addition to this work, the CAP is collaborating with the Centers of Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) to improve the effectiveness and adoption of evidence based laboratory
practice guidelines.
The CAP and the CDC have issued a survey to gather feedback on current workup practices for
acute leukemia cases which will serve as a baseline. After the guideline has been published, the
survey will be reissued to assess changes in practice and awareness and adoption of the
guideline.
Patients are at the heart of the CAP and assessing guideline uptake is critical. As a leader in
quality assurance, I encourage laboratories to participate in the survey to help advance patient
care and laboratory practices.
If you’re interested in participating in the survey as part of the CAP/CDC cooperative agreement,
“Improving the Impact of Laboratory Practice Guidelines: A New Paradigm for Metrics,” please
contact the CAP Pathology and Laboratory Quality Center at center@cap.org.
[The CAP staff plans to interview Dr. George for this blog to obtain a more personal
account of her participation in the survey development and her role as a quality assurance
leader.]

CAP Website (Announcement on homepage)
Main Text Box
Tell us how you workup acute leukemia cases
CAP and CDC Team to Improve Laboratory Practices
Hover Text
CAP and CDC Cooperative Agreement
Participate in survey (link to web page with links to the acute leukemia survey)

Social Media Messages for the Acute Leukemia Survey
Below are a few draft social media messages to promote the acute leukemia survey and the
collaborative work of the CAP and the CDC.
CAP Twitter:
1. Share how you work up #acuteleukemia.Take survey @pathologists (include link to
survey)
2. CAP teams with CDC to improve the diagnosis of #acuteleukemia @pathologists (include
link to survey)

CAP Facebook:
The CAP is collaborating with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on a
cooperative agreement, “Improving the Impact of Laboratory Practice Guidelines: A New
Paradigm for Metrics.”
Share how you work up acute leukemia to help improve patient care. Take the survey (insert
survey link) today!