Telepathology for intraoperative neuropathologic consultations at an academic medical center: a 5-year report.
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Date
2007-09-20
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Abstract
Telepathology is an attractive solution for providing neuropathologic intraoperative expertise to geographically diverse hospitals from a center of excellence To date few reports specifically address the feasibility of such a system for intraoperative neuropathology specimens The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center is a 20 hospital system in Southwest Pennsylvania in which the pathology department has adopted a subspecialty centers of excellence method of managing cases The Division of Neuropathology is physically located at 1 hospital but provides neuropathologic expertise to the entire system Adult neurosurgery is currently limited to 2 hospitals separated by 18 city blocks We describe our experience in providing remote intraoperative neuropathologic consultations over a 5 year period from 2002 to 2006 Several approaches are discussed with emphasis on the current system and the evolution of imaging technology Diagnostic outcomes are compared among 400 telepathology cases and 1 200 conventional intraoperative cases Current technology is capable of facilitating teleneuropathologic intraoperative diagnoses in a timely manner with accuracy rates comparable to those for conventional methods However the practice of providing these remote consultations requires a sophisticated and technologically advanced environment along with substantial planning communication and training of both pathologists and pathology assistants