A Diagnostic Virtual Microscope System for Whole Slide Robotic Imaging: The Value of Virtual Slides for the Practice of Pathology
Michael John Becich, Ashokkumar A. Patel, Drazen M. Jukic · 2005
The system was designed as a true n-tier architecture and was constructed using Oracle (8i), Java applets and TCP/IP for network protocol transfers. The transfer of images from the case entry tool was initiated by an authenticated user session which authorized both user and viewer stations. The transfer of images between locations was accomplished by a serialized collection of Java objects delivered by RMI (remote method invocation) over a dedicated 33.5 kilobyte per second connection. In the day this was designed for, costs were prohibitive for transatlantic bandwidth, and this was a very cost-effective solution with lag times of only 20 minutes with a complex 16 image case on a low speed (modem) connection. The unique feature of the system was as soon as the text description and the first image of the case was available, the transplant pathologist would be able to view the case and begin work as images continued to be received (see Figure 19.1). In addition, the pathologist on call was notified via beeper when a case was initiated. These tools in combination offset most of the disadvantages of the low bandwidth used for this hybrid telepathology solution.