Since the development of digital whole slide (virtual slide) technology in the early 2000s, their translation into teaching, research and the clinic has involved comparison of whole slide images and traditional glass slides. Anatomical Pathologist, Lecturer and Specialist in digital pathology, Dr Simone Van Es, has published a review of digital pathology in research, clinical practice and education in the January 2019 edition of Pathology (Van Es, 2019).

In addition to covering the use of digital pathology in an education setting, the paper focuses predominantly on the use of virtual slides in a clinical setting. We felt it was worth sharing with our community as from an education perspective, learning gains using virtual slides and online learning resources are reported to be at least equivalent to and in some cases superior when compared to studying with textbooks and glass slide teaching sets (Van Es, 2015). For the BEST Network, it is reassuring that doctors in training consider image repositories, such as our own Slice image bank, to be invaluable for their education (Van Es, 2015).

This article will be freely available until December 2019. To read more, the review can be found at https://www.pathologyjournal.rcpa.edu.au/article/S0031-3025(18)30320-9/fulltext.

To get started using Slice as a virtual slide image repository for your students, contact me at s.dowdell@best.edu.au.

References

1. Van Es, S.L., 2019. Digital pathology: semper ad meliora. Pathology, 51, 1-10. (Link).
2. S.L. Van Es, R.K. Kumar, W.P. Pryor, et al. 2015. Cytopathology whole slide images and adaptive tutorials for postgraduate Pathology trainees: a randomized crossover trial. Human Pathology, 46, 1297-1305 (Link).