We display the results of a new project to encourage residents to submit cases to a growing database on our website via the World Wide Web (WWW). The goal of this project is to further pathology education with a web-based medium in order to gain efficiency in basic computing and internet-related skills.

Residents in our program complete rotations in surgical and clinical pathology at six institutions in the Capital area, including Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the National Naval Medical Center, and the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology. This environment is ideal for an internet-based study set that residents can contribute information to in the form of brief "case reports," and review from any rotation to view new submissions to the site.

Each rotation site is equipped with digital microscopy equipment, Pentium II computers, and LAN-based internet connection. With the use of downloadable instructions and commercially available software (ColdFusion™), residents can submit prepared text and images to the case submission area of the website with basic internet skills. The cases are then reviewed for quality and accuracy before being uploaded to the site. To date, a total of 12(75%) residents have submitted 54 cases to the site. In general, senior residents and those with increased computer/internet knowledge are more likely to submit cases to the site. Two faculty within the departments have contributed an additional four cases. Compared to residents, current faculty have less experience with web-authoring tools.

Through this medium, residents have shown an increased interest and familiarity with the use of digital photography, web-authoring tools, and pathology education resources on the WWW. This has also stimulated resident education both in terms of preparing the cases for web presentation, and creating a growing study set by which others can share their experience. This is particularly true for junior residents, who will be able to quickly view representative cases they may encounter. With newly added Pubmed links provided in the case discussion area, residents and visitors to the site can review the latest literature pertaining to a specific case.