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6th ESACP Congress, Heidelberg, April 7-11, 1999 |
A137
Telepathology has not altered the day-to-day working practice of most
pathologists in Europe. Although telepathology performance is limited by
factors such as equipment expense and complexity, lack of user-friendliness
and poor inter-operability, the most serious problem is the lack of
perceived need for telepathology. Most pathologists do not feel that the
available telepathology facilities can improve their service to patients.
Recently the Internet has widened the range of services available under the
guise of telepathology . Many large servers devoted specifically to
pathology services are available both in the USA and more recently in Europe
(e.g. EUROPATH). These offer not only current pathology news, information,
and links; but also such services as remote consultation, remote
quantitation, continuing medical education, accreditation, and image data
bases for diagnostic assistance. Thus the Internet forms a valuable resource
for more and more practising pathologists. Meanwhile, performance is rising
and costs are falling for both equipment and communications. Also, the
practice of pathology is changing. There is increasing interest in many of
the services contributing to quality assurance that can be offered by
telepathology. The number of pathologists now investigating or using
telepathology is increasing dramatically. It is therefore vital the
pathologists assist researchers, developers and manufacturers to develop
tools that make the most cost-effective use of the available technological
resources.
TELEPATHOLOGY - TOOL OR TOY?
Tucker J, Duvall E, McGoogan E, Bird C
Pathology Dept, Edinburgh University, UK