Recent Digital Pathology Articles – Pocket Pathologist & Canadian Guidelines for Telepathology Services

J Pathol Inform 2014; 5: 10.
Pocket pathologist: A mobile application for rapid diagnostic surgical pathology consultation.
Hartman DJ, Department of Pathology, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. Parwani AV, Department of Pathology, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. Cable B, Information Services Div
Department of Pathology, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.

INTRODUCTION: Telepathology allows the digital transmission of images for rapid access to pathology experts. Recent technologic advances in smartphones have allowed them to be used to acquire and transmit digital images of the glass slide, representing cost savings and efficiency gains over traditional forms of telepathology. We report our experience with developing an iPhone application (App – Pocket Pathologist) to facilitate rapid diagnostic pathology teleconsultation utilizing a smartphone.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: A secure, web-based portal (http://pathconsult.upmc.com/) was created to facilitate remote transmission of digital images for teleconsultation. The App augments functionality of the web-based portal and allows the user to quickly and easily upload digital images for teleconsultation. Image quality of smartphone cameras was evaluated by capturing images using different adapters that directly attach phones to a microscope ocular lens.
RESULTS: The App was launched in August 2013. The App facilitated easy submission of cases for teleconsultation by limiting the number of data entry fields for users and enabling uploading of images from their smartphone’s gallery wirelessly. Smartphone cameras properly attached to a microscope create static digital images of similar quality to a commercial digital microscope camera.
CONCLUSION: Smartphones have great potential to support telepathology because they are portable, provide ubiquitous internet connectivity, contain excellent digital cameras, and can be easily attached to a microscope. The Pocket Pathologist App represents a significant reduction in the cost of creating digital images and submitting them for teleconsultation. The iPhone App provides an easy solution for global users to submit digital pathology images to pathology experts for consultation.

DOI: 10.4103/2153-3539.129443

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J Pathol Inform 2014; 5: 15.
Guidelines from the Canadian Association of Pathologists for establishing a telepathology service for anatomic pathology using whole-slide imaging.
Canadian Association of Pathologists Telepathology Guidelines Committee Bernard C, Montreal Children’s Hospital, Québec, Canada. Chandrakanth SA, Health Sciences Centre, St. John’s Newfoundland, Canada. Cornell IS, Royal Columbian Hospital, N
Montreal Children’s Hospital, Québec, Canada.

The use of telepathology for clinical applications in Canada has steadily become more attractive over the last 10 years, driven largely by its potential to provide rapid pathology consulting services throughout the country regardless of the location of a particular institution. Based on this trend, the president of the Canadian Association of Pathologists asked a working group consisting of pathologists, technologists, and healthcare administrators from across Canada to oversee the development of guidelines to provide Canadian pathologists with basic information on how to implement and use this technology. The guidelines were systematically developed, based on available medical literature and the clinical experience of early adopters of telepathology in Canada. While there are many different modalities and applications of telepathology, this document focuses specifically on whole-slide imaging as applied to intraoperative pathology consultation (frozen section), primary diagnosis, expert or second opinions and quality assurance activities. Applications such as hematopathology, microbiology, tumour boards, education, research and technical and/or standard-related issues are not covered.
DOI: 10.4103/2153-3539.129455
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