Table 2.

Strategies to improve autopsy rate

Efforts by the pathological department

Coordinate autopsies with the schedules of requesting physicians

Faster processing of the autopsy reports

Provision of resources for performing autopsies

Creation of regional autopsy centres

Provides opportunities to improve autopsy quality

Develops strategies for using autopsy results to improve clinical performance

Improvement of training for pathology residents

Better education of medical students

Quality control of performed autopsies (different pathologists interpreting the same autopsy specimens) in order to improve diagnostic value

Provide opportunities to improve autopsy quality by specialization

Efforts by physicians

Allow physicians complete discretion in requesting autopsies (arbitrary sampling as a result will augment the numbers of important misdiagnoses)

Analyse data from regional centres to identify patterns of missed diagnoses and to generate prediction rules that would enhance the process of case selection

Augment autopsy numbers with widespread use of structured death reviews and structured reports of epidemiological statistics on various diseases encountered in the ICU

Communicate the conclusion of the autopsy report to the relatives

Efforts by both departments

Clinicopathological conferences on a monthly basis attended by the treating intensivist, the radiologist and the pathologist

Interesting cases should be published with the aim of education and improving knowledge of epidemiology