6th ESACP Congress, Heidelberg, April 7-11, 1999

A084
INTERPATH : PROVIDING A HIGH QUALITY, LOW COST AND EASE OF USE SECOND OPINION TELEPATHOLOGY SOLUTION ON THE INTERNET
Knudsen PL*, Clinch N+, Maddison J+, Danielsen HE*

*: Department of Pathology, The Norwegian Radium Hospital, Oslo, Norway, +: Fairfield Imaging Ltd, Turnbridge Wells, UK

Despite promising results from experimental trials and early acceptors, daily use of telepathology systems has yet to become common practice. High investment and usage costs share some of the explanations for this. Difficulties related to the operation of the service are other known reasons. As Internet-based services are becoming more common at hospitals today, the InterPath service recognises this as a convenient medium for addressing the above mentioned problems. InterPath also exploit the fact that the equipment necessary to access the service either exists on the pathologist's table or that if it does not it can be procured for only a modest price. The InterPath concept is to provide access to a virtual microscope that can be controlled in much the same way as with traditional light microscopy. Pre-scanned frozen sections can be downloaded from designated sites on the Web and viewed in an accompanying viewer that is provided free of charge. Convenient features like selection of image areas, zooming and adjustment of light density are supplied. Diagnosis may be posted by means of online response forms, i.e. without transmission by email. Preliminary test results suggest the service to provide sufficient diagnostic accuracy and little or no problems related to the actual operation of the service. Future enhancements include more optimal image compression to reduce transmission time without degeneration of image quality.