title: Turning Microscopy in the Medical Curriculum Digital: Experiences from The Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences at University of Copenhagen.
abstract: Familiarity with the structure and composition of normal tissue and an understanding of the changes that occur during disease is pivotal to the study of the human body. For decades, microscope slides have been central to teaching pathology in medical courses and related subjects at the University of Copenhagen. Students had to learn how to use a microscope and envisage three-dimensional processes that occur in the body from two-dimensional glass slides. Here, we describe how a PathXL virtual microscopy system for teaching pathology and histology at the Faculty has recently been implemented, from an administrative, an economic, and a teaching perspective. This fully automatic digital microscopy system has been received positively by both teachers and students, and a decision was made to convert all courses involving microscopy to the virtual microscopy format. As a result, conventional analog microscopy will be phased out from the fall of 2016.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Sciences, Molecular Pathology Section, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark; Department of Pathology, Copenhagen University Hospital, Rigshospitalet, Denmark.
authors.forename: Ben
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Vainer
authors.affiliation: IT Services, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Niels Werner
authors.initials: NW
authors.lastname: Mortensen
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Sciences, Endocrinology Research Section, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Steen Seier
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Poulsen
authors.affiliation: IT Services, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Allan Have
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Sørensen
authors.affiliation: Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, Section VIII, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Jørgen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Olsen
authors.affiliation: The Dean's Office, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Hans Henrik
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: Saxild
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Sciences, Molecular Pathology Section, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Flemming Fryd
authors.initials: FF
authors.lastname: Johansen
keywords: Digital microscopy; education; histology; pathology; virtual microscopy