Basic aspects of and recent developments in telepathology in Europe, with specific emphasis on quality assurance.
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Date
1999-11-24
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Abstract
Telepathology is the diagnostic work of a pathologist from a distance and includes all specific fields of diagnostic pathology such as frozen section services expert consultation cytometric and histometric measurement and continuous education For about 15 years experience has been collected at several universities in the United States and Europe based upon analog telephone lines 9 2 kbaud digitized lines ISDN 64 kbaud broad band connections 1 5 Mbaud and the World Wide Web 28 kbaud Potential use can be expected in the application of telepresentation remote slide preparation remote central diagnostics and telediscussion The transfer of still images is well developed that of live images is used in only a few institutions for frozen section services The image quality and spatial resolution as well as the transfer speed are sufficient for expert consultations morphometric measurements quality assurance and education All applications focus on discontinuous work flow Although the European Community focuses on user needs and standardization aspects of telepathology by sponsoring a widespread telepathology project Europath implementation of telepathology into routine application in the continuous work flow has still to be developed The technical equipment has still to be adjusted to the labor flow charts in routine pathologic diagnostic procedures Telepathology seems to be the appropriate technique to offer both improvement in diagnostic quality and inclusion of the control institution into diagnostic responsibility