The Papanicolaou test is named after the Greek doctor who invented it. It is commonly known as the Pap smear and it is a preventative medical examination used to determine if there are abnormal cells showing precancerous activity on a woman’s cervix—the opening between the birth canal and the womb.

Pap smear results are generally very reliable, and the test has been very helpful in decreasing the sizeable number of women succumbing to the disease of cervical cancer. Negative Pap smear results have sometimes been given to women who later turn out to be diagnosed with later stage cervical cancer, however—a situation which can turn deadly very fast.

The cells needed for the microscopic examination of a Pap smear are gathered during a gynecological examination in a doctor’s office using a tool known as a speculum. The speculum widens and keeps the birth canal open to make the collection of cervical cells for the medical lab easier.

Once gathered, Pap smear results can only be arrived at through examination by the expertly trained eye of a medical lab technician using a microscope. In today’s busy labs, where one technician may be expected to do the work of several, it may be very easy to make mistakes and miss key signs of cellular abnormality when a workload becomes overbearing.

Under the former standards of the American Cancer Society (ACS), an annual Pap smear was highly encouraged in any woman over the age of majority. If a teenager become sexually active with the awareness of adults in her life, yearly Pap tests were encouraged even younger.

While these standards have morphed to a more relaxed approach recommending screening in the twenties to every three years followed by five-year intervals thereafter, Pap smear results are still heavily relied upon in predicting disease development.

Abnormal Pap smear results can be followed up with other more advanced tests such as the colposcopy, endocervical scraping, and cone biopsies. A colposcopy is done is a doctor’s office and is intense magnification and examination of the surface of the cervix. Endocervical scraping and cone biopsies are a gathering of a greater number of cells and then a cone-shaped sample of tissue for further analysis.

All these additional ‘tools in the toolbox’ depend, however, upon getting accurate Pap smear results that indicate abnormal cellular activity accurate. Between hospitals and clinics, nearly 20 million Pap tests are ordered each year in the U.S. These are a lot of tests to process, and medical labs need maintain the dedicated and trained staff necessary to keep up with the demand.

In the absence of such attention, medical misdiagnosis may occur from which wrongful death can then follow. Labs need to be held accountable if they are negligent in their methods for processing this extremely valuable screening tool.

According to the statistics of the ACS, about 13,240 cases of cervical cancer are diagnosed annually, with 4,170 women dying from the disease.