Teleneuropathology

Teleneuropathology is a field within a broader field, telepathology. Telepathology and teleneuropathology are the practice of pathology at a distance. For discussion purposes, telepathology can be used as a surrogate for teleneuropathology and vice versa. Typically, for teleneuropathology, light microscopic digital images of brain or nerve histopathology sections, or cytopathology slides of brain tissue smears, are transmitted by broadband telecommunications and viewed either synchronously or asynchronously on a video monitor by a teleneuropathologist located at a distant call center or pathology laboratory. Today, the telepathology equipment marketplace is crowded with vendors who offer a range of competing, and potentially confusing, technologies. A number of distinctly different types of telepathology systems are in use worldwide. Selecting the best type of telepathology system for a specific clinical environment has important service quality and cost implications. Teleneuropathology has been used for a handful of diagnostic applications including frozen section diagnoses, primary surgical pathology diagnoses, peer review second opinions, expert second opinions, and microscopic readouts of special studies, as well as for proficiency assessment and distance education.