Telepathology Special Interest Group
June 4, 2001

Yukako Yagi
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center

Ronald Weinstein, MD
University of Arizona

The attendance was about 25, the great majority were previous members of the SIG. We discussed four main areas: Telepathology Practice, Reimbursement and Accreditation, Technology, Applications and Operations of the SIG itself.

1. Telepathology Practice:
   We discussed two important issues in the practice of telepathology:

2. Reimbursement and Accreditation:
   The Univ. of Arizona reported good results with third party reimbursement however found some problems with JHCO accreditation of telepathology providers in remote hospitals.

3. Technology:
   The University of Pittsburgh reported progress with high speed digitalization of glass slide and the integration of digital slides with pathology reports. We also discussed the potential impact of the JPG 2000 standard. In addition, we discussed the efforts of the Japanese project or inter-operability of robotic microscopes for telepathology.
   

4. Applications and Operations:
   We discussed a variety of telepathology applications:
   The VA group from Milwakee discussed their continuing success with robotic and non-robotic dynamic telepathology.

   The Pittsburgh group presented data on the utility of static imaging in international transplant telepathology and announced plans for a internet based transplant telepathology consortium.
   The group also reported the adoption of a dynamic telementoring system for the 20 hospitals UPMC Health System.

   A group from Oxford University discussed success with a national breast pathology QA system for accreditation and teaching based on telepathology.
   We also discussed the AFIP experience in second opinion telepathology and telehematopathology.