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Symposium to explore virtual slide technology by Dick Peterson Public Relations The digital technology that makes a patient’s X-rays, MRI images and medical records available to multiple clinicians simultaneously has become a valuable tool to enhance biomedical education, research and diagnosis. Cell Biology and Anatomy professor Robert W. Ogilvie, Ph.D., easily demonstrated by pulling a full slide box from a shelf in his office. Each one-inch by three-inch sliver of glass contains a mounted slice of time, an ultra-thin portion of tissue permanently arrested and ready for examination under a microscope.  “It’s real. These are actual cells. I can put this slide under a microscope and examine them,” Ogilvie said, “and I can let you take a look.” So whether the objective is education, research or diagnosis, the glass slide is a useful tool. But it has its limitations. Ogilvie can zero-in and magnify a portion of the slide, but he might lose perspective on just which section of the slide he’s looking at. He can invite others to take a look, but unless the image is projected, he can’t be sure each one is looking at the same structure. He can enlist the help of colleagues at other institutions, but only by shipping the slides off and waiting for a reply. Thanks to digitization, Ogilvie now has virtual slides to replace the glass ones. They’re not real. But as far as he’s concerned, virtual is better.  And that has spurred him to plan MUSC’s “First Annual Symposium on Virtual Slides in Teaching Research and Diagnosis.” Planning for the symposium, set for Nov. 21 through 23, began as a limited event to bring together a few experts in the field, but it has since attracted joint sponsorship and enjoys a faculty of 10 speakers from across the country.  The Friday evening dinner speaker will be G. Allan Johnson, Ph.D., of Duke University Medical Center’s Center for In Vivo Microscopy. His talk, “3D Magnetic Resonance Histology,” points the way toward a time when even the MRI is surpassed in diagnostic technology by whole body imaging that reaches to even the viewing of individual cells. “Virtual slides have opened all kinds of possibilities for teaching, research and diagnosis,” Ogilvie said. “And that’s what we want to explore in the symposium. We want to bring together people who are using virtual slide technology and explore new applications for this tool.” Turning from his wooden slide box, Ogilvie faced his computer and clicked the mouse.  “Look at this.” Accessing the Web site of pathologist and symposium speaker Fred Dee, M.D., at the University of Iowa’s Carver College of Medicine, he opened Dee’s virtual slide box and selected a full view of prostate cancer cells. Then, while retaining a smaller version of the full slide, he magnified a section to more closely examine a particular structure. Right there on the computer monitor was a view of a slide that resides at the University of Iowa. “It’s not real. It’s virtual, but so much more flexible,” Ogilvie said. He also demonstrated the use of a “white board,” computer software that allows a number of people in locations remote from each other to view the same virtual slide simultaneously, manipulate the magnification and by telephone discuss the implications of what they are viewing as they view it. “Virtual slides will not replace the hands-on experience of using a microscope and glass slides, but will complement it,” said MUSC pathologist and symposium speaker S. Erin Presnell, M.D. “Over the past two years, we have converted to a Web-based syllabus. We have histopathologic images available online, but these are static, not dynamic, and I am anxious to introduce virtual slides into the pathology courses.” Presnell cites the “remarkable improvement in virtual slide technology over the past several years,” and expects its role in the practice of medicine to expand dramatically. She predicts that as the amount of material available online grows through the cataloging and virtual capturing of archival material from contributors throughout the world, the resources for courses will be greatly expanded.  “The availability of the programs on the Web will allow access to microscopic material through home or other convenient Internet access sites,” Presnell said. “Virtual slides are low maintenance and will permit standardization of education material within a course. Also the instruction of virtual slide technology will familiarize students with technology that will certainly be used in practice of medicine in the future.” Virtual slides are created by computer scanning actual slides in high definition and storing the images for retrieval and viewing. Slide libraries across the country are being converted into virtual slides, Ogilvie said. It’s a trend that promises to enhance biomedical education, research and diagnosis. Symposium speakers are listed on the symposium’s Web site, http://histology.musc.edu/vslide/, with descriptions of their work with virtual slides and links to their Web sites, many of which contain virtual slideboxes.  Registration fee is $200 prior to Oct. 20, after which it will be $250. Online registration is available at the symposium Web site.   Catalyst Online is published weekly, updated as needed and improved from time to time by the MUSC Office of Public Relations for the faculty, employees and students of the Medical University of South Carolina. Catalyst Online editor, Kim Draughn, can be reached at 792-4107 or by email, catalyst@musc.edu. Editorial copy can be submitted to Catalyst Online and to The Catalyst in print by fax, 792-6723, or by email to petersnd@musc.edu or catalyst@musc.edu. To place an ad in The Catalyst hardcopy, call Community Press at 849-1778.