Teleneuropathology: a means to improve the correctness of neuropathological diagnoses in clinical practice

Telepathology in general, and teleneuropathology in particular is the practice of pathology at a distance, viewing digitized images of histological slides on a video monitor rather than directly through a light microscope. For the transmission of the digitized images from a telemicroscope to the remote diagnostic video monitor, different technologies such as ordinary telephone lines, broadband telecommunications channels, and even the Internet can be used. The transmitted images may serve for primary neuropathological diagnosis, teleconsultation, quality assurance, proficiency testing, and distance learning. Static imaging and dynamic imaging are the two major competing technologies of telemicroscopy. Static-imaging systems appear to have levels of diagnostic accuracy that are not satisfactory for diagnostic neuropathology. In contrast, high levels of diagnostic accuracy can be achieved using dynamic-imaging systems with the transmission of live video images in real time and by using a robotized telemicroscope under the control of the remote teleneuropathologist with the possibility to examine the entire histological specimen.