A European network for virtual microscopy--design, implementation and evaluation of performance.
Web-based virtual microscopy has enabled new applications within pathology. Here, we introduce and evaluate a network of academic servers, designed to maximize image accessibility to users from all regions of Europe. Whole-slide imaging was utilized to digitize the entire slide set (n = 154) for the slide seminars of the 21st European Congress of Pathology. The virtual slides were mirrored to five academic servers across Europe using a novel propagation method. Functionality was implemented that automatically selects the fastest server connection in order to optimize the slide-viewing speed ( http://www.webmicroscope.net/ECP2007). Results show that during 6 months of monitoring the uptime of the network was 100%. The average viewing speed with the network was 3.1 Mbit/s, as compared to 1.9 Mbit/s using single servers. A good viewing speed (>2Mbit/s) was observed in 32 of 37 countries (86%), compared to 25 of 37 (68%) using single servers. Our study shows that implementing a virtual microscopy network spanning a large geographical area is technically feasible. By utilizing existing academic networks and cost-minimizing image compression, it is also economically feasible.
Lundin
Mikael
M
Department of Oncology, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland. mikael.lundin@helsinki.fi
Szymas
Janusz
J
Linder
Ewert
E
Beck
Hans
H
de Wilde
Peter
P
van Krieken
Han
H
García Rojo
Marcial
M
Moreno
Ignacio
I
Ariza
Aurelio
A
Tuzlali
Sitki
S
Dervişoğlu
Sergülen
S
Helin
Heikki
H
Lehto
Veli-Pekka
VP
Lundin
Johan
J
D003195:Computer Communication Networks / Q000295:instrumentation; D005060:Europe; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D020407:Internet; D046609:Libraries, Digital; D008853:Microscopy / Q000379:methods*; D010338:Pathology, Clinical / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D014584:User-Computer Interface