Feasibility and diagnostic agreement in teledermatopathology using a virtual slide system.
We investigated the feasibility and diagnostic agreement of a virtual slide system (VSS) in teledermatopathology. Forty-six biopsy specimens from inflammatory skin diseases were selected and scanned with a VSS at the Research Unit of Teledermatology, Medical University of Graz, Graz, Austria. Images were stored on a virtual slide server on which a specific Web application suited for telepathology (http://telederm.org/research/dermatopath/) runs. Twelve teleconsultants from 6 different countries reviewed the 46 cases, working directly on the Web application. Telediagnoses agreed with gold standard and conventional diagnosis with an average of 73% and 74%, respectively. Complete concordance among all teleconsultants with gold standard and conventional diagnosis was found in 20% of the cases. In 10 cases in which complete clinical data were missing, the average agreement of telediagnosis with gold standard diagnosis and conventional diagnosis decreased to 65% and 66%, respectively. Only 3 of 4 cases of inflammatory skin diseases were correctly diagnosed remotely with VSS. The system that we have used, despite its usability, is not completely feasible for teledermatopathology of inflammatory skin disease. Moreover, the performance seems to have been influenced by the availability of complete clinical data and by the intrinsic difficulty of the pathology of inflammatory skin diseases.
Massone
Cesare
C
Department of Dermatology, Medical University of Graz, A-8036 Graz, Austria.
Soyer
H Peter
HP
Lozzi
Gian Piero
GP
Di Stefani
Alessandro
A
Leinweber
Bernd
B
Gabler
Gerald
G
Asgari
Masoud
M
Boldrini
Renata
R
Bugatti
Leonardo
L
Canzonieri
Vincenzo
V
Ferrara
Gerardo
G
Kodama
Kazuo
K
Mehregan
Darius
D
Rongioletti
Franco
F
Janjua
Shahbaz A
SA
Mashayekhi
Vahid
V
Vassilaki
Ismini
I
Zelger
Bernhard
B
Zgavec
Borut
B
Cerroni
Lorenzo
L
Kerl
Helmut
H
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001706:Biopsy / Q000379:methods; D002648:Child; D003880:Dermatology / Q000379:methods; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015588:Observer Variation; D012871:Skin Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology*; D019113:Telepathology / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards*; D014584:User-Computer Interface