Oct 19, 2008

- Telepathology made simple-

MEDTING - MedicalTube, medical meeting; exchange video and image



As a pathologist, I know the importance of collaboration and second opinions. The practice of pathology is sometimes very subjective and its not unusual to get three different diagnosis for the same tissue sample/ histopatholgy slide from three different pathologists.Besides, all pathologists at one institute tend to think along similar lines, further increasing chances of bias. But getting distant doctors to review any one case and histopathology slide has been difficult till date. The best we could do was "store-and-forward" telepathology, where the images of a histopathology slide were forwarded to known experts via email for second opinion. A very primitive means of practicing telepathology, if i may say so!


Enter Medting.


"MEDTING is a clinical web portal that provides a platform for exchanging clinical cases, images, and videos. Physicians can post clinical cases with associated images or videos for discussion among colleagues. In addition, independent images or videos can be sent to the Atlas space for other to review. Other members of the community can then vote and write comments on the cases and images posted."


Medting allows doctors from around the globe to offer their opinions on any histopathology slide (or any other clinical image). Any doctor can upload the facts and images related to any case for second opinions from experts all over the globe.Patient privacy is not compromised as names are not revealed and the site claims to be 100% HIPAA compliant.


The images uploaded presently on the site were of very good resolution. One could easily scan the whole slide, Zoom in on interesting areas of the slide, leave comments, tag images, share them, etc. It provides an excellent collaboration platform and can serve as an excellent educational tool. At present, it boasts of 1840 cases and 15760 images and videos. Cases and images are tagged with keywords using the SNOMED CT terminology.


Medting also offers premium membership and individual institutional support.


I like their service, though it is still very BASIC and has tremendous scope for improvement.


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