Peter M. Banks, M.D.Director of HematopathologyCarolinas Medical CenterCharlotte – North Carolina

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

Faculty should avoid sensory overload of participants: choose either virtual microscopy or static images (PowerPoints) at any one time. Two screens too much!

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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