[The Mexican Board of Pathology: microscopy examination before and after digital microscopy]

The examination carried out by the COMMAP for the certification process assessed pathologist formed in dissimilar institutions. In 2007 COMMAP’s governing body in turn, decided to digitize it. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the conversion to virtual slides in the microscopy section, compared with the traditional have had an impact on the scores of the candidates.

The slides were scanned with high resolution. The virtual microscope is a standard computer screen where there is a program (Aperio Scope Image Viewer) that can display the scanned slides. The results of the microscopy section of the past nine years were compared; two groups were formed: 1) those without digitized examination, and 2) with it. The results were compared by Student t-test and Mann-Whitney.

Of a 461 results 240 belonged to the first group and 221 to the second one. On a scale of 1-10, the average scores were 6.6 and 6.8, respectively (p > 0.6 and > 0.5).The minimum and maximum scores were also similar in each group.

According to the results, the digitized exam in the COMMAP’s certification process shows no difference between the digitized and the conventional versions.