Category: News & Events

Since the 1980s, telepathology has been providing an efficient and effective means to review patient samples by a remote pathologist.  Although considered to be an antiquated technique by some, microscope-based telepathology still affords healthcare institutions and pathologists a list of benefits (and features) that are still unmatched by many whole slide imaging technologies.

With a microscope-based telepathology system, you can…

1. Review glass slides on-site or remotely.
2. Invite one or more specialists for live, simultaneous remote viewing and consultation.
3. Use the full optical resolution of multiple objectives.
4. Freely adjust focus on the fly through thick and thin samples.
5. Review slides immediately without interrupting a scan or adding slides to a queue for scanning.
6. Review wet mounts, frozen sections, FNAs.
7. Use other contrast methods than histological staining (i.e., polarization, darkfield).
8. Use 1” x 3” and 2” x 3” slides.
9. Use oil immersion.
10. Use the microscope as a conventional stand-alone microscope.

Are you interested in learning more about the RC500 Remote Collaboration System for Live Telepathology?

CLICK HERE to request a demonstration

Click Here to Download the RC500 Brochure

Click Here to  view more details about RC500

From recent surveys, studies and medical school records, the pathology gap (imbalance between practitioners vs growing incidence of disease) is further exacerbated by impending retirements, a decline in graduation rates, and entry into subspecialties (when adjusted for population levels). [1]

Further complicating this pathology gap are continued cost-cutting measures imposed by independent institutions, facilities, insurers, and agencies such as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.  In their latest ruling on the physician fee schedule, the CMS reported that there will be a 1.25% overall reduction in the CY 2024 PFS from CY 2023. [2]  By comparison, there was no overall reduction from CY 2022 to CY 2023.  Tightening the belt even further, the 3.75% temporary CY 2021 payment increase provided by the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 is set to expire.

How can pathologists and healthcare institutions do more with less?

Streamline the pathology workflow: 

Following the concept of lean production, pathologists can focus on the work that they do best by off-loading other work to pathology assistants (e.g., tissue grossing) and other care extenders. [1]  This leaves the pathologist to focus their resources on what only they can do – confirm findings and sign the case report.

Extend access to pathologists:

Telepathology enables access to pathologists and sub-specialists, regardless of location.  Even when the pathologist is in the same facility, they can readily review live patient cases via remote viewing to render or confirm findings and, without further delay, advance care for the patient.  When the pathologist is not located in the facility with the patient slides, they can still utilize remote telepathology to view the patient samples.  Used in conjunction with ROSE cases, remote telepathology can translate into shortened OR time for the patient, thus reducing overall costs for the patient, insurer, and healthcare system.  Following suit, specialists can also be utilized via telepathology to review challenging cases.

How can the ACCU-SCOPE® RC500 Remote Telepathology System help close the pathology gap and ease the burden on the healthcare system?

The RC500 Remote Collaboration System was developed to address the need for live telepathology and as an alternative to costly slide scanning methods.  Through remote sharing technology, a pathologist can review glass slides from any location and at any time.

Through telepathology, the RC500 enables the remote reviewing of patient slides regardless of proximity to the laboratory.  Likewise, the patient care team also benefits from live telepathology by enabling access to readily available sub-specialists when additional expertise is required.  Additionally, live telepathology, as in FNAs and ROSE, improves patient care by shortening the time for review and accelerating treatment.

Would you like to learn more about the RC500 Remote Collaboration System for Live Telepathology?

CLICK HERE to request a demonstration

Click Here to  view more details about RC500

Click Here to Download the RC500 Brochure

It is well known that a physician’s wellbeing and Quality of Life can impact the quality of treatment. [1]  Without specialization, pathologists split their time between anatomical pathology, clinical lab work, teaching, research and administrative duties. [2]  Sub-specialization in pathology creates opportunity for improved learning, leading to higher satisfaction with diagnoses in those specialties.  More specialized work has also shown improvement in the quality of diagnosis. [3]

Other stresses plague pathologists.  Case load and pathologist accessibility are high on this list.  So how can live, real-time telepathology further improve the pathologist’s QOL and the quality of patient care?

• Convenient live slide evaluation from any location, within or outside the institution.
• Live consultation for accelerated diagnoses, faster treatment and better patient outcomes.
• Increased efficiency in case review, reduced waiting time, and opportunity to review more cases.
• More opportunities for training (and mentoring) by sharing sessions with fellow pathologists and specialists.
• Improved access to specialist consultations, even when not on-site.
• Reduced cost and risk of breakage from transportation of slides to the pathologist for evaluation.
• Expanded convenience and flexibility affording pathologists enhanced work-life balance.
• Enhanced ability to collaborate and share knowledge between institutions.

Are you using live remote telepathology, or is it in your future?  The ACCU-SCOPE RC500 Remote Collaboration System can support your telepathology goals and enhance your quality of care.

Interested in a demonstration of the RC500? CLICK HERE to request a demonstration

Microscope technology has evolved tremendously over the past several decades, far beyond simply adjusting light intensity, changing objectives, and positioning and focusing a specimen — with digital telepathology, anyone with an internet connection can review microscopic samples remotely. Let’s examine what real-time telepathology is and the advantages that microscopes like the ACCU-SCOPE RC500 have over traditional models.

What Is Digital Pathology?

Digital pathology first emerged in the 1980s and has advanced considerably since its introduction. Thanks to numerous technological advancements over the years, it is now an indispensable part of countless institutions.

In its infancy, digital pathology relied on the capture and sharing of static images with the remote reviewer. Digital pathology has evolved to utilize whole-slide imaging to scan and digitize entire glass slides, then store and share the digital slide files via the internet. In addition to capturing static specimen images, some digital pathology technology can capture and permit the viewing (streaming) of live images as well.

The creation of high-quality specimen imagery allows individuals to easily view, analyze, and manage pathology samples on an electronic device of their choice. In short, digital telepathology allows for remote functionality over long distances so long as there is an established internet connection.

The Benefits of Real-Time Telepathology

One of the greatest strengths of real-time telepathology is that it allows a remote user to access and review live images of patient slides from long (or not-so-long) distances. This is particularly useful given the increasingly constrained availability of pathologists, including when they are not local to the hospital labs for in-person viewing.

For example, real-time telepathology enables healthcare professionals to review slides from patient cases in rural regions without having to transfer the physical slides to a faraway hospital. Given how delays in diagnosis can be dangerous, real-time telepathology has the potential to save lives through its accessibility to pathologists, regardless of their location. Remote functionality also allows remote viewers to review samples from biopsies and fine needle aspirates (FNA) while the patient is still in the operating room.

In addition, this innovative approach to pathology can help reduce costs and improve the speed and quality of patient care. It allows sub-specialists to review difficult cases or provide second opinions and enhances the coordination and communication between all medical personnel in a particular patient’s care team. The accelerated decision-making brought about by this remote collaboration leads to greater productivity, improving patient care as a result.

The ACCU-SCOPE RC500 is a remote collaboration system designed for real-time telepathology and consists of a motorized microscope, motorized stage, computer, and software. By logging into the RC500 computer desktop, a remote viewer has full control of the microscope and specimen position – the only operation the remote reviewer cannot do is place the slide on the stage. It’s worth noting that the RC500 can also function as a traditional microscope when not being used for telepathology, allowing for greater flexibility and multipurpose usage in the laboratory.

What Is Rapid On-Site Evaluation?

Rapid On-Site Evaluation (ROSE) refers to the near-immediate review of a patient sample by a pathologist. Tissue biopsies are taken from a patient in the operating room (OR), the biopsies are prepared and reviewed by a pathologist, all while the patient is still in the OR. Normally, this would involve the pathologist visiting the pathology (frozen section) laboratory located near the OR. Thanks to real-time telepathology, the pathologist doesn’t need to come down to the frozen section lab to review the sample — rather, they can do so quickly and conveniently from their office.

OSEA (On-Site Evaluation of Adequacy) is one version of ROSE in which fine needle aspiration (FNA) types of biopsies are reviewed to provide a quick determination of whether there is sufficient (adequate) cellular content for a cytopathologist or pathologist to render a diagnosis, classification or disease stage of the specimen. As pathologists are not always readily available to review a ROSE case, a cytopathologist or cytotechnologist may also not be available to review OSEA cases and, therefore, remote telepathology can play a critical part in providing fast access to the medical experts to determine sample adequacy.

Applications of Remote Telepathology

There are numerous medical disciplines that utilize remote telepathology, including pathology, cytopathology, hematopathology, anatomic pathology, microbiology, dermatopathology, and many more. As such, the seamless automation and remote viewership of this technology naturally lead to a diverse range of applications.

For example, remote telepathology can be utilized in healthcare settings for patient diagnosis, clinical research, and even resident training. In addition, this technology is a highly effective tool in educational environments beyond just healthcare. Digital images can be acquired from any specimen, saved to a network or the cloud, and then accessed from any device, allowing students to easily view the digitized samples outside of class. Furthermore, the digitized samples ensure that all students experience the same “slides” and the same locations/features on the slides, thereby standardizing the learning experience.

If You’re Interested in Learning More About an RC500 Microscope for Your Institution, Contact ACCU-SCOPE Today

To bring the benefits of remote functionality to your laboratory, reach out to ACCU-SCOPE. In addition to the RC500 microscope, we also supply traditional microscopes, high-quality digital imaging cameras, and more. Contact us today for further information and to place an order for your organization.

Depth of field and depth of focus are both well-known terms in photography, filmography, and microscopy. Given how similar their names are, they have sometimes been used interchangeably. However, despite both playing a vital role in camera and microscope optics, the two are very much different. Let’s look more closely at what defines the depth of field and depth of focus, their role in microscopy, and why the two should not be confused with one another.

Depth of Field

The depth of field is the distance between the closest object plane in focus and the furthest one in focus. In other words, it can be considered a lens’s ability to retain the quality of an image without moving the object farther or closer to the frame. Depth of field relates to how much detail can be seen above and below the optimal focus position.  When objects are placed at a set focal distance away from a lens, detail can blur and thereby degrade the resolution. As a result, smaller objects naturally lead to reduced depth of field for the lens. It is worth noting that the depth of field will increase as the condenser numerical aperture (condenser aperture diaphragm) is closed down (approaches zero).  While depth of field increases when the condenser aperture closes, resolution decreases.

Depth of Focus

Depth of focus is the imaging complement to depth of field and is more concerned with the tilt of the sensor plane of the microscope with respect to the lens image plane. This concept relates to how the quality of focus is altered as the object stays still and the lens’s sensor side changes. Therefore, the depth of focus will change significantly based on the magnification of the object and the microscope’s ability to focus light, known as the numerical aperture. Depth of focus has little to do with sensor size and is more closely related to sensor perpendicularity to the optical axis and pixel count — the more pixels the sensors have, the more noticeable sensor tilt will be on the quality of the image. Given how digital camera sensors are exposed at a given focal plane, depth of focus impacts the quality of the resulting image and is an essential consideration in photomicrography.

Depth of Focus vs. Depth of Field: How They Differ

As described above, depth of field and depth of focus relate to different perspectives. However, they are not entirely separate, as they both correspond to the axial depth of the space of a particular plane — depth of field relates to object space, whereas the depth of focus involves image space. This, in turn, influences their applications. For example, low-power objective lenses generally have lower numerical apertures and will have a higher depth of field (detail is lost quickly above or below the optimal focus plane) and higher depth of focus (sensor tilt is less impactful to image quality), while high-power objective lenses will have almost the reverse.

For Microscopes and More, Give Us a Call

Now that you have a better understanding of the depth of focus vs. depth of field differences and how they affect the quality of microscopes, see their influences for yourself with the help of ACCU-SCOPE’s high-quality microscope products. We offer a range of upright, inverted and dissection microscopes and various microscope accessories for laboratory settings and other environments. To learn more information about our products, give us a call today.