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. 2018 Nov 14:9:39.
doi: 10.4103/jpi.jpi_44_18. eCollection 2018.

The Use of Screencasts with Embedded Whole-Slide Scans and Hyperlinks to Teach Anatomic Pathology in a Supervised Digital Environment

Mary Wong  1 , Joseph Frye  1 , Stacey Kim  1 , Alberto M Marchevsky  1
Affiliations

The Use of Screencasts with Embedded Whole-Slide Scans and Hyperlinks to Teach Anatomic Pathology in a Supervised Digital Environment

Mary Wong et al. J Pathol Inform. .

Abstract

Background: There is an increasing interest in using digitized whole-slide imaging (WSI) for routine surgical pathology diagnoses. Screencasts are digital recordings of computer screen output with advanced interactive features that allow for the preparation of videos. Screencasts that include hyperlinks to WSIs could help teach pathology residents how to become familiar with technologies that they are likely to use in their future career.

Materials and methods: Twenty screencasts were prepared with Camtasia 2.0 software (TechSmith, Okemos, MI, USA). They included clinical history, videos of chest X-rays and/or chest computed tomography images, links to WSI digitized with an Aperio Turbo AT scanner (Leica Biosystems, Buffalo Grove, IL, USA), pre- and posttests, and faculty-narrated videos of the WSI in a manner closely resembling a slide seminar and other educational materials. Screencasts were saved in a hospital network, Screencast.com, YouTube.com, and Vimeo.com. The screencasts were viewed by 12 pathology residents and fellows who made diagnoses, answered the quizzes, and took a survey with questions designed to evaluate their perception of the quality of this technology. Quiz results were automatically e-mailed to faculty. Pre- and posttest results were compared using a paired t-test.

Results: Screencasts can be viewed with Windows PC and Mac operating systems and mobile devices; only videos saved in our network and screencast.com could be used to generate quizzes. Participants' feedback was very favorable with average scores ranging from 4.5 to 4.8 (on a scale of 5). Mean posttest scores (87.0% [±21.6%]) were significantly improved over those in the pretest quizzes (48.5% [±31.2%]) (P < 0.0001).

Conclusion: Screencasts with WSI that allow residents and fellows to diagnose cases using digital microscopy may prove to be a useful technology to enhance the pathology education. Future studies with larger numbers of screencasts and participants are needed to optimize various teaching strategies.

Keywords: Digital microscopy; screencasts; teaching surgical pathology; whole-slide imaging.

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Conflict of interest statement

There are no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Components of screencasts: brief clinical history (a), imaging studies (b), options of viewing embedded video of whole-slide image and/or manual viewing of whole-slide image (c), pretest (d), annotations in faculty-narrated segments (e), and posttest with subsequent answers provided (f)
Figure 2
Figure 2
WebScope software (Leica Biosystems) enables the adjustment of the whole-slide images from low (a) to high (b) magnifications
Figure 3
Figure 3
Feedback from participants to survey questions is favorable with mean values of 4.5–4.8 higher on a scale of 1–5 (n = 12). The bar graph shows mean values and standard deviations
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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