Pacific Telepathlogy Service at Fiji School of Medicine

Pacific Telepathology service has been established at Fiji school of Medicine (FSM) with technical support from University of Basel. The service is designed for remote consultation, continuing medical education (CME) health care research (HCR). To develop Telepathology services for participation with international Telepathology community for improving quality of health care in the Pacific. Telepathology server for "Pacific Pathology Group" has been set up at http://telepath.patho.unibas.ch/, which is dedicated for Telepathology consultations bring together health care professionals in the Pacific to overcome limitations of distance, lack of resources and to improve quality of healthcare services, Accessed by a computer possessing Internet and email connection, members send cases and questions, review and comment on other cases and receive consultation via web or email. Benefits are tremendous in terms of remote consultation, CME, HCR and improving quality of modern health care even at remote islands devoid of health care resources. Internet speed or reliability is not a limiting factor. Virtual institute of pathology has been established in Switzerland with over 400 Pathologists and is providing consultations to many countries including Solomon Islands where there is no pathologist. The institute is functioning efficiently with average reporting turnaround time of 48 hours. Efficiency is the result of organization and communication. Presently this Service has been established at the FSM in Fiji Islands primarily for education & remote consultation with plans to expand to other island countries.