Telepathology for intraoperative consultations and expert opinions: the experience of the Eastern Québec Telepathology Network

Abstract

Context: The Eastern Québec Telepathology Network was created to provide uniform diagnostic telepathology services in a huge territory with a low population density.

Objectives: To evaluate the diagnostic concordance and turnaround times of intraoperative consultations (IOCs) and the turnaround time of expert opinions by telepathology.

Design: For the IOC part of the study, the first 104 IOC diagnoses from a single hospital were compared with those in the final pathology report. The turnaround time of the IOC was calculated from the arrival of the specimen at the pathology laboratory until the time of the call to the surgeon. For the expert opinion part of this study, the first 94 expert opinions from 5 hospitals were reviewed by comparing the time of the initial request until the time of the final report.

Results: Of the 104 cases in the IOC study, 8 diagnoses (7.7%) were slightly discrepant because of differences in terminology but remained in the same category of interpretation. Two cases (1.9%) were significantly discordant. Therefore, 102 cases (98.1%) were either concordant or had no clinically significant discrepancies. The average turnaround time for IOCs was 20 minutes (range, 8-43). For the expert opinion part of the study, reports were signed out within 24 hours in 64 cases (68%) and within 72 hours in 80 cases (85.1%).

Conclusions: The Eastern Québec Telepathology Network allows a rapid, high-quality IOC service to be maintained for a hospital where no pathologist was available on site. It also provides a fast, expert opinion service to pathologists working alone.