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Peter M. Banks, M.D. Director of Hematopathology Carolinas Medical Center Charlotte – North Carolina. Lessons Learned in the Use of Virtual Microscopy in the Classroom, Conference Room and Court Room. Tough times for surname (2008-2009). For the Classroom:.
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Peter M. Banks, M.D. Director of Hematopathology Carolinas Medical Center Charlotte – North Carolina Lessons Learned in the Use of Virtual Microscopy in the Classroom, Conference Room and Court Room
Conclusions - Recommendations • Great advantage realized: any cases can be used no matter how small the sampling • Savings in time, cost for producing glass slide sets; scans more durable • Requires one-time extra effort in selecting field for scan, proofing master scans in detail prior to duplication • Needs faculty rehearsal for facile presentation
Conclusions – Recommendations - 2 • Faculty should avoid sensory overload of participants: choose either virtual microscopy or static images (PowerPoints) at any one time. Two screens too much!
Postlude • Subsequent courses based on scanning virtual microscopy cases: PMB AAOMP (San Antonio 2006 - through 2009) ASCP Pulmonary Pathology (A. Churg) (first offering 2006) USCAP Specialty conferences and some short courses beginning 2006
Postlude – Updated 2009 ASCP with 3 of 12 Education courses now based on Virtual Microscopy USCAP: All specialty conferences and majority of short courses beginning 2009 in virtual microscopy format new venture – APECS (anatomic pathology electronic case series) for CME credit.
Great advantage of virtual microscopy: real-time presentation Allows response to questions from clinicians, effective review of microscopy. Software platform assures structured library for patient slide records. (demonstration) Problems: time required for scanning - hardware upgrade required
Problem: scanning takes time, labelling each image, getting requests last minute
Liver transplantation conference; old conference room, old PC
To overcome limitations of on-site PC’s in conference rooms: custom laptop unit
Laptop – Dell Business “precision” model • Intel Core 2 Duo T9400: 2.53 GHz, 1067 MHZ 6M • 4.0 GB, DDR3-1066 SDRAM • 1 GB NVIDIA Quadro FX 3700M • 250 GB Free Fall Sensor Hard Drive 9.5 MM
Breast Cancer Management Conference : clinical-radiology-pathology
Early experience with legal cases • Lawyers very savvy in adopting this method (case 4 months ago reviewed solely on basis of scans sent from legal firm) • Avoids issues regarding securing original glass slides (chain of custody, etc.). • Ideal for identifying original slides with inclusion of labels on macro image • Expedites court room presentation of microscopy.
Legal cases - continued • Problems with providing evidence ahead of time to other side’s counsel (lengthy time required to burn CD’s or DVD’s). • Potential problems explaining relationship of this method to conventional photomicrographs used at trial (e.g. PowerPoint) • Some lawyers apprehensive: ?being tricked • Caution must be used in explaining microscopy to lay jury.
Conclusions • For better or worse scanning virtual microscopy is here to stay and will continue to gain a foothold in many applications, e.g. pathology courses, internet CME programs, legal cases. • At present (2009) convenience of glass slide projection for clinical conferences cannot be equaled with scanning