The University of Iowa

Emerging virtual slide technology has the potential to revolutionize the way we teach and share microscopic images. This technology applies to not only medical student and house staff education, but also to CME, proficiency testing, and web-based publishing.

In this presentation, the authors will demonstrate the Virtual Slide Box of Histopathology in context with specific technologies employed in digitization and production of microscopic image media that is both interactive and immersive. Each slide is a seamless montage of up to 1,200 contiguous 40x high power objective fields tiled together. Each slide can be viewed through multiple magnifications, with zooming from less than 1x and up to 40x. Each slide can be panned in an x-y horizontal plane, nearly emulating a glass slide as viewed under a traditional microscope. The project, initiated in early 1999, involved digitizing and delivering slides from the annual histology course directed to University of Iowa medical students. During the spring of 2000, students had access to both the"virtual" slides through a web-based "Virtual Microscope Laboratory" and real microscopes with glass slides in a physical, traditional laboratory. At e end of the course, students completed a comparative evaluation. The results of those evaluations are published in the February 2001 issue of The Anatomical Record (New Anatomist), but will be summarized in general terms for this presentation.

More recent developments of tools for annotating virtual slides also will be demonstrated, with emphasis placed on the functional opportunities for enhancing student learning with this type of technology. As a wrap-up, the presenters will talk about a related NLM-grant-funded project to develop a public-domain set of virtual teaching slides depicting every adult human organ and tissue. The goal of the project is to collaborate with colleagues at other medical schools to obtain a full set of high-quality slides to be digitized and then provide a public-domain digital slide box accessible by any histology or pathology course instructor around the world.

Throughout the presentation, the authors will include comments about drawbacks and benefits of technologies selected for data acquisition, image processing, and delivery. Specific technologies and formats intended for discussion include: MicroBrightField Virtual Slice software, Kodak FlashPix format, Live Picture Zoom Viewer plug-in, Bacus Labs WebSlides, AppleQuickTime VR format and QuickTime VR Authoring Studio software, and others. For the demonstration session, attendees would have an opportunity to tryout the virtual slide technologies.

Relevant web site: http://www.medicine.uiowa.edu/pathology/uarep_histopathology/index.html

Technologies presented and discussed in this presentation are applicable not just to microscopic image content, but any digital image content, including but not limited to anatomical images, dermatology images, history of medicine images, etc. While many institutions have digitized slides for study by their students or for delivery within web-based curricular materials, a long-standing concern in the field has been the sacrifice of key functional aspects of traditional microscope study. The technology discussed in the presentation and demonstration offers a viable alternative to traditional methods of teaching with microscopic source material.

James M. Duncan, M.L.I.S.
Coordinator, Information Commons & Electronic Services
Hardin Library for the Health Sciences
100 Hardin Library
The University of Iowa
Iowa City, IA 52242-1098
Phone: 319-335-6928
Fax: 310-335-9897
Email: jim-duncan@uiowa.edu
Website: http://staffweb.lib.uiowa.edu/jduncan/

CO-AUTHORS:

Fred R. Dick, M.D.
Professor & Vice Chair for Educational Affairs
Department of Pathology
1198 Med Labs
The University of Iowa
Iowa City, IA 52242-1098
Phone: 319-384-4436
Email: fred-dick@uiowa.edu
Website:
http://www.medicine.uiowa.edu/pathology/path_folder/faculty/dick/dick.html

The software to digitize entire histologic sections and deliver them over the web is now available from several sources. With funding from UAREP and the National Library of Medicine, and software from MicroBrightField Inc., we have developed a web site designed to allow pathology educators to share educational slides across departments.

http://129.255.241.42/pathology/uarep_histopathology/index.html
(requires a PC with a 800x600 monitor)

Our long term goals are: 1) To expand the above referenced site into a public domain database with 300 slides suitable for medical student education. and 2) To develop a second database of ~1000 slides or more at the resident training level that can be shared by a consortium of Pathology departments.

Emerging virtual slide technology has the potential to revolutionize the way we teach and share microscopic morphology. It has applicability not only to medical student and house staff education, but also to CME, proficiency testing, and web based publishing. See http://129.255.241.42/pathology/wbm_example/index.html for examples.

Further refinement of virtual slide technology will continue. For example a browser and annotator with the capability to add text and arrows to virtual slides on the web, and better identification and control of magnification, are currently under development

http://neuroinformatica.com/mbfvs/ (this beta development site currently works better with Netscape than I.E.).

If potential involvement of your department in achieving the above goals interests you, or if you have questions about the technology, please don't hesitate to contact me by return e-mail.

fred-dick@uiowa.edu

Fred R. Dick MD
Professor of Pathology
University of Iowa
Iowa City, Iowa