| Introduction - Telepathology at UPMC |
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Imaging and the Pathologist -- Images are the soul of pathology. Interpreting images, and communicating that interpretation, goes to the heart of pathology practice. Several years ago the Department of Pathology at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center designed and implemented a department wide imaging system. All pathologists have display stations on their desks, and there are capture stations in all labs, cutting rooms and sign out areas. Images are stored centrally and can be made available on the World Wide Web. Readily available images have proven invaluable for clinical signout, education, research and consultation. Images have also been included in clinical reports to selected clients - bringing what is exciting and interesting about pathology to clinicians and patients.
Telepathology -- Most work in "telepathology" has focused on formal case consultation through electronic networks. Though this work is important, we believe that the consultation is only one aspect telepathology (and perhaps the most difficult aspect to establish). Computer networks can join
pathologists to each other and to their clients at all levels of their practice, and it will be this multifaceted interaction that will be the future of telepathology
At UPMC telepathology includes all the ways that pathologists can interact over a distance. This includes advertising services and
gatherings, creating educational content, and distributing information useful in practice. Telepathology, to us, also includes creating closer client communications through image enhanced reports,internet based ordering and video conferencing. In addition, pathologists can use networks to create distributed communities for specialized service and research. Finally, telepathology includes forums,
case conferences and formal consultations between pathologists at a distance.
Teleconsultation -- In the preface of the first edition of "Diagnostic Surgical Pathology" Stephen S Sternberg MD wrote:
"We speak of the loneliness of the long-distance runner, but there may be no one lonelier than
a surgical pathologist working solo. Those working in large hospitals have the luxury of being able to consult ad lib with one or more pathologist about a given case, and may even have an associate who is a specialist in the area of difficulty. Easy access to consultation is a prerequisite for accurate diagnosis, and, accordingly, for optimal patient care. It is especially critical in those instances when the busy pathologist has a low level of diagnostic doubt, but this is tempered by the need to sign out the case without consultation because of the press of time..."
In building a web based teleconsultation system we hope to remove some of that loneliness. Our design philosophy has been, and will continue to be, one of simplicity, ubiquity, user friendliness and inexpensive open systems.
The Future -- This site is designed to bring effective, ubiquitous, inexpensive teleconsultation to pathology. Several major upgrades are planned including:
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