A Better Lens on DISEASE
A Better Lens on DISEASE
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DOI：
10.1038/scientificamerican0510-74
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发表时间：
2010-05-01
影响因子：
3
通讯作者：
May, Mike
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
May, Mike
© 2010科学美国人www.科学美国人。科学美国人75个细胞。一个病理学家在显微镜下只会在少数细胞中评估这些相同的属性。然而，转向计算机并不会使病理学家出局。相反，数字化幻灯片实际上可以让更多的病理学家参与诊断过程，从而避免医疗错误。Michalopoulos说，与他人就诊断进行咨询是“病理学日常生活的一部分”。但是今天，他说，“你把一张载玻片放在邮件里，即使用最快的方法，也需要两三天才能到达那里。”有了数字病理学，组织图像可以通过电子方式发送给其他人，或者更有可能的是，张贴在一个安全的网站上，并在几秒钟内提供给世界另一端的病理学家进行咨询。如果在幻灯片上咨询是那么容易，那么快，病理学家可能会比他们现在所做的更多。正如Michalopoulos所说，“协商是解决争端的唯一途径，专家们往往意见不一。所以你需要把幻灯片发给外部专家。”结合起来，这两个广泛的进步-更多的定量分析和更快的图像共享咨询-作为数字化病理学样本的主要理由。不过，要实现这一目标，将取决于解决一系列技术问题-
© 2010 Scientific American www. ScientificAmerican. com Scientific AmericAn 75 ery cell. A pathologist hunched over a microscope would assess those same attributes in only a small number of the cells. Turning to computers, though, will not take pathologists out of the picture. Instead digitizing slides can actually bring more pathologists into the process of making a diagnosis and thereby avoid medical error. Michalopoulos says that consulting with others on a diagnosis is “part of daily living in pathology.” But today, he says,“you put a glass slide in the mail, and it takes two or three days—even with the fastest methods—to get there.” With digital pathology, a tissue image could be sent electronically to others or, more likely, posted on a secure Web site and made available for a consultation with a pathologist on the other side of the world in just seconds. If consulting on a slide was that much easier, that much faster, pathologists might confer even more than they do already. As Michalopoulos says,“A consultation is the only way to resolve disputes, and experts often disagree. So you need to send slides to outside experts.” In combination, these two broad advances—more quantitative analysis and faster image sharing for consultation—serve as the main rationale for digitizing pathology samples. Getting there, though, will depend on solving a series of tech-