A European de facto standard for image folders applied to telepathology and teaching

Since 1980, French pathologists at ADICAP (Association pour le Développement de l'Informatique en Cytologie et en Anatomie Pathologique) have created a common language code allowing the use of computers for routine applications. This code permitted the production of an associated exhaustive image bank of approximately 30,000 images. This task involved many specialists necessitating the definition of specific processes for security and simplicity of data handling. In particular, it has been necessary to develop image communication. To achieve that goal, it was necessary to define a folder, associating textual information to images. That was done through several industrial software providers contribution. Consequently, this folder, using a common packaging standard, allowed any pathologist access to images, codified data and clinical information. Accessing folders has been made easy by launching a Web server at CRIHAN under the supervision of ADICAP. An ADICAP software user may not only browse through the folder but may also import them into their own system and produce new folders. Today more than a hundred users in France and in foreign countries are able to provide diagnostic advice and also referential products useful for further education and quality control. The next challenge is the development of this preliminary de facto approach toward an internationally admitted standard suited for morphological image exchange.