Your cell phone is your ( doctor's) best friend.

Microscopy provides a simple, cost-effective, and vital method for the diagnosis and screening of hematologic and infectious diseases.It is an essential tool in disease diagnosis and widely used all over the world. Unfortunately, the EXPERTISE required to use the tool, and to evaluate the findings is not very common. One requires a pathologist with many years of experience to make sense of those seemingly random and confused pixels. (I know, i am a pathologist :-)

It takes a lot of effort, and money to train a pathologist, equip him/her with all the instruments required, and then use the skills in a backward area without proper facilities. But the advent of digital imaging has solved many of our troubles. Telepathology made sure that we do not need a pathologist physically present at the site, to render a diagnosis.

But microscopy and digital imaging of the biopsy/tissue fragment was still a hassle. Now we have done better. You don't even need a microscope to send a microscopic image over the network!! Researchers from the Univ. of California worked with high-powered LED – which retails for just a few dollars – coupled with a typical camera phone to produce a clinical quality image sufficient for detecting in a field setting some of the most common diseases in the developing world.

The newly developed technology, CellScope, allows for average cell cameras to be retrofitted with powerful microscopes, able to detect malaria parasites, and even fluorescent marker-stained tuberculosis bacteria.
Thus you have your humble cell-phone transformed into the sherlockian "cell-scope".

“The images can either be analyzed on site or wirelessly transmitted to clinical centers for remote diagnosis. The system could be used to help provide early warning of outbreaks by shortening the time needed to screen, diagnose and treat infectious diseases,” University of California in San Francisco (UCSF)/UCB Bioengineering Graduate Group graduate student David Breslauer adds. CellScope could also provide remote access to digitized health records, and would be amenable to epidemiological studies, using triangulation or global positioning system location data, such that outbreaks could be monitored as they happen.



So maybe i could click a photomicrograph of that mole on my friend"s forearm, twitter it to my onco-pathologist friends, who view it on their smartphones and twitter / message their diagnosis back to me. Simple and fast, especially with my own group of pathologists on the network.

- Imaging techniques in Pathology-

Israel's ASI gives pathologists a vital second opinion - ISRAEL21c

-I have written previously about the subjectivity involved in the practise of Pathology. Its difficult to get two pathologists to agree on any one diagnosis if both pathologists insist on looking at the case through the prism of their own experiences.Besides, it is always tough disputing any one"s diagnosis as it is merely an opinion and reflects the Pathologists own "view" of the case.

Now, ASI (Applied Spectral Imaging), a privately held company in Israel has come up with a colorful solution for the problem. Instead of depending totally on the "morphology", ie shape and size, it provides a way to visualize the antigenic proteins present in the tissue. Using their Spectracube family of products, It allows researchers to distinguish between
different materials on a chromosome by highlighting its features with
unique colors, instead of the black dye that had been used previously. This leads to better identification in suspicious cases and the test also lends itself to reproducibility.

The company has already launched " TB Finder" in the market.In addition to TB Finder, ASI is already selling
or planning to market additional tools for pathologists, including
PathEx, as well as for morphologists, who examine protein structures
and alterations in cell structures.

The company presently promotes its products only as a backup / second opinion. But this seems to be more out of its desire not to rub the so-called "Specialists" the wrong way. Being able to corroborate one"s opinion by a scientific and a reproducible test is a tool sorely needed in the practise of Pathology. I shall not be surprised if such corroboration of opinion of a pathologist soon becomes a norm rather than an option.

All in all, a very very useful service to improve accuracy of diagnosis.

- Imaging techniques in Pathology-

Israel's ASI gives pathologists a vital second opinion - ISRAEL21c

-I have written previously about the subjectivity involved in the practise of Pathology. Its difficult to get two pathologists to agree on any one diagnosis if both pathologists insist on looking at the case through the prism of their own experiences.Besides, it is always tough disputing any one"s diagnosis as it is merely an opinion and reflects the Pathologists own "view" of the case.

Now, ASI (Applied Spectral Imaging), a privately held company in Israel has come up with a colorful solution for the problem. Instead of depending totally on the "morphology", ie shape and size, it provides a way to visualize the antigenic proteins present in the tissue. Using their Spectracube family of products, It allows researchers to distinguish between
different materials on a chromosome by highlighting its features with
unique colors, instead of the black dye that had been used previously. This leads to better identification in suspicious cases and the test also lends itself to reproducibility.

The company has already launched " TB Finder" in the market.In addition to TB Finder, ASI is already selling
or planning to market additional tools for pathologists, including
PathEx, as well as for morphologists, who examine protein structures
and alterations in cell structures.

The company presently promotes its products only as a backup / second opinion. But this seems to be more out of its desire not to rub the so-called "Specialists" the wrong way. Being able to corroborate one"s opinion by a scientific and a reproducible test is a tool sorely needed in the practise of Pathology. I shall not be surprised if such corroboration of opinion of a pathologist soon becomes a norm rather than an option.

All in all, a very very useful service to improve accuracy of diagnosis.

- 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.

Related articles

• Medical consultation on the Move (medical-communication.blogspot.com)
• Web 2.0 in health (neeleshbhandari.blogspot.com)
• Using Cellphones to diagnose Malaria and Blood disorders (meducationtechnology.blogspot.com)

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- 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.