Comparison of a virtual microscope laboratory to a regular microscope laboratory for teaching histology.

Full Abstract

Emerging technology now exists to digitize a gigabyte of information from a glass slide, save it in a highly compressed file format, and deliver it over the web. By accessing these images with a standard web browser and viewer plug-in, a computer can emulate a real microscope and glass slide. Using this new technology, the immediate aims of our project were to digitize the glass slides from urinary tract, male genital, and endocrine units and implement them in the Spring 2000 Histology course at the University of Iowa, and to carry out a formative evaluation of the virtual slides of these three units in a side-by-side comparison with the regular microscope laboratory. The methods and results of this paper will describe the technology employed to create the virtual slides, and the formative evaluation carried out in the course. Anat Rec (New Anat) 265:10-14, 2001. Copyright 2001 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Author information

Author/s: Harris, T (T); Leaven, T (T); Heidger, P (P); Kreiter, C (C); Duncan, J (J); Dick, F (F);

Affiliation: College of Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Comparative Study; Evaluation Studies; Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't; Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

Journal: The Anatomical record (Anat Rec), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2001-Feb; vol 265 (issue 1) : pp 10-4

Dates: Created 2001/03/12; Completed 2001/05/03; Revised 2006/11/15;

PMID: 11241206, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 2/18/2009, IMS Date: )

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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