Automation and the Endangered Future of the Pap Test

Abstract
Deaths from uterine cervical cancer have been dramatically reduced since the development in the 1940s of the Papanicolaou smear (also called the Pap smear or test) for detection of precursor lesions. Along with the vaccines for smallpox, polio, and other viruses, this screening test has been hailed as one of the most successful public health measures and is the only cancer screening test proved to reduce mortality (1).