Karolinska Institute,Sweden
Title: Evaluation of a portable field colposcope in a non-cytology based cervical cancer screening program
Biography:
Elisabeth Wikström Shemer is a Senior Consultant of Obstetrics and Gynecology and affiliated with the Department of Clinical Sciences, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden. Dr. Wikström Shemer's research focuses on cervical cancer, colposcopy, and improving screening methods to the underserved as well as intrahepatic cholestasis pf pregnancy. She has also invented a small. a portable, battery-driven colposcope, the Gynocular to improve access to colposcopy. Dr. Wikström Shemer has been awarded the SKAPA prize for the invention of the Gynocular, Stockholm Stads innovations stipendium 2010, the Red Dot award 2013, as well as Vinnova 2009 and 2014 for developing digital health, and the 33-list 2015 award. She is an MD, Ph.D in Obstetrics and Gynecology from the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm Sweden and serves as Gynius Medical Director.
Objectives: After the introduction of non cytological tests like visual inspection after acetic acid (VIA) or Human Papillomavirus (HPV) test, there is a paradigm shift in screening for cervical cancer. Though ‘screen and treat’ strategy is being recommended in low resource settings, the low positive predictive values of both the tests will lead to lot of overtreatment. GynocularTM is a battery-operated, portable device with three-step magnification and green-filter. Present study was conducted in a community setting to evaluate GynocularTM in detection of cervical neoplasias.rnrnMethodology: Women between 30-60 years were screened using VIA and HPV test. Women positive on either test had evaluation by GynocularTM using IFCPC 2011 colposcopy classification and swede score. Punch biopsy was obtained from any lesion detected by GynocularTM. HPV positive women also had random punch biopsy from the cervix. The sensitivity, specificity and agreement between histology and gynocular diagnosis were estimated.rnrnResults: Total 6884 women were screened from April, 2014 to March, 2015. Total 684 women were examined by GynocularTM. A total of 28 cases of CIN2+ were detected. The sensitivity and specificity of Gynocular (IFCPC Grade-2 threshold) to detect CIN 2+ were 92.9% and 96.1% respectively. The exact agreement between Gynocular examination and histology to classify the cervical lesions was 55.5% with kappa value of 0.29 (95% C.I. 0.22–0.36) indicated ‘fair’ agreement. rnrnConclusion: There is a great need for an inexpensive colposcope to be used for programs in LMICs. The agreement of GynocularTM with histology was same as that of colposcopy reported in our earlier study conducted in the same setting. The logistic advantage of the device and ability to capture images using mobile phone are beneficial to use Gynocular TM for cervical cancer screening program.