UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School
Newark, New Jersey
Violetta Barbashina, MD
Violetta Barbashina, MD, Joseph Benevenia, MD, Vlad Makarov, MS, Anthony Grygotis, MD, Seena Aisner, MD, Stanley Cohen, MD, and Meera Hameed, MD
Dept of Pathology and Dept of Orthopedic Surgery
UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School
Newark, NJ

Background: Bone tumors represent a unique group of pathologic conditions for which little time is assigned during the training period in most Pathology residency programs. We felt that one of the possible ways to fill the gap would be to create a concise Bone Tumors tutorial using the benefits of the World Wide Web.

Design: Our online Bone Tumors tutorial available at http://www.umdnj.edu/tutorweb is an interactive teaching program, which introduces the basic concepts in diagnosis of bone tumors and tumor-like conditions and emphasizes the importance of a combined clinico-radiologic-pathologic approach to diagnosis. The tutorial is tailored to suit its primary audience: Pathology residents and Orthopedics residents. The minimal requirements include basic computer skills and the use of a standard Web browser (Netscape Navigator™ or Internet Explorer™ 4x or higher).

The tutorial discusses 20 common and diagnostically difficult bone tumors and presents nine (9) diagnostic tables, forty (40) high-quality radiologic images, nine (9) gross photographs, and sixty-six (66) microscopic images. Despite the large number of illustrations, the size of the tutorial is under 3MB, which makes it easy to manage and operate. Original scanned images were edited using Adobe Photoshop™ 5.5 and Adobe ImageReady™ 2.0 to increase their educational value. In order to minimize download times, the edited images were saved in JPEG format with high compression. A navigational tool provides convenient links between diagnostic tables, clinico-radiologic discussions and other sections of the site. A search tool can quickly find specific topics of interest. The tutorial’s effectiveness can be measured by a quiz that presents diagnostically challenging cases and multiple-choice questions. We welcome the feedback from our visitors. The site allows a user to type in and e-mail his/her comments and suggestions and to participate in evaluation of the site.

Results and Conclusion: Initial responses from a group of residents and faculty demonstrated excellent satisfaction with quality of presented images and clinico-radiologic-pathologic discussions. We believe that Internet-based teaching programs, particularly those dealing with highly sub-specialized areas of Pathology, can significantly aid in Resident education.