Presented at the 2000 APIII Conference Return to 2000 Abstract Index
ONLINE IMAGE UPLOAD SYSTEM FACILITATES COLLECTION AND SHARING OF TEACHING MATERIALS FOR THE PATHOLOGY EDUCATION INSTRUCTIONAL RESOURCE WEB SITE
University
of Alabama at Birmingham
Birmingham, Alabama
Peter G. Anderson, DVM, PhD
Dan Roach III1, Sate Hamza2, Kristopher N. Jones2, Peter
G. Anderson2
1Department of Pathology, University of South Alabama
2Department of Pathology, University of Alabama at Birmingham
Recent advances in digital imaging have revolutionized the way in which academic pathology programs catalog and archive images. As digital cameras have proliferated throughout autopsy and surgical pathology suites, it is becoming the norm in many programs for residents to document their work in digital means rather than with 35mm slides. This change to digital documentation presents a unique opportunity in pathology to facilitate the collection and sharing of digital teaching materials for use in medical education.
The Pathology Education Instructional Resource (PEIR) was developed to facilitate faculty development of digital teaching materials within the Department of Pathology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Originally conceived as a digital library of pathology images, the Web site has grown to include images from the fields of pathology, histology, radiology, and anatomy (now totaling over 50,000). In addition we have incorporated online authoring tools with the image databases which allow faculty and residents to develop Web-based teaching materials.
In response to calls from users for the ability to more quickly include new images into the digital library, an image upload feature was developed. This feature allows faculty and residents to upload new digital images on the fly from any Web-enabled computer—including those in the surgical and autopsy pathology suites. This online image upload feature also allows pathologists from any institution to upload images to this shared educational resource. Currently faculty and residents from the University of South Alabama have used this image upload system to add images to the PEIR image database. Web server imaging software compensates for differences in file size, resolution, and format—supporting 30 different upload formats. Indexing tools have also been developed to facilitate coding of images and multiple images from the same case may be uploaded without having to reenter redundant data. Finally, a built-in peer review process ensures that only images of sufficient quality, teaching worth, and with proper descriptors are approved for inclusion in the digital library.
This online image upload system facilitates collection and sharing of teaching materials and can foster collaboration among educators at various institutions.