Implementing Virtual Microscopy Improves Outcomes in a Hematology Morphology Course

Abstract

In this study, we evaluated the efficacy of virtual microscopy as the primary mode of laboratory instruction in undergraduate level clinical hematology teaching. Distance education (DE) has become a popular option for expanding education and optimizing expenses but continues to be controversial. The challenge of delivering an equitable curriculum to distant locations along with the need to preserve our slide collection directed our effort to digitize the slide sets used in our teaching laboratories. Students enrolled at two performance sites were randomly assigned to either traditional microscopy (TM) or virtual microscopy (VM) instruction. The VM group performed significantly better than the TM group. We anticipate that this approach will play a central role in the distributed delivery of hematology through distance education as new programs are initiated to address workforce shortage needs.

Optical Versus Virtual Microscope for Medical Education: A Systematic Review

“…). Learners that performed better using VM in eight studies were notably all medical student learners (Krippendorf and Lough, ; Husmann et al, ; Anyanwu et al, ; Brueggeman et al, ; Helle et al, ; Diaz‐Perez et al, ; Tian et al, ; Alotaibi and ALQahtani, ). Improved performance using OM was reported in one of the studies (Helle et al, ).…”

A Web‐Based Virtual Microscopy Platform for Improving Academic Performance in Histology and Pathology Laboratory Courses: A Pilot Study

“…One important explanation is strictly the added time spent exploring the laboratory sessions through the availability of the VM platform. Indeed, VM students reported spending slightly more time viewing digital slides online than LM students spent with glass slides in the laboratory (Brueggeman et al, 2012). In the present study, the LM + VM students used both digital slides and glass slides to study and review the laboratory sessions.…”

A Survey Study of Benefits and Limitations of using CellaVision™ DM96 for Peripheral Blood Differentials

“…Technical issues were noted in the literature 2,5 which are applicable to CellaVision™ technology as well. In previous studies, no breakdowns of the instrument occurred during the three month evaluation period 12 , but in another study, the instrument was down for 8 times for a total time of 12-20 minutes each downtime. 10 Concern with fixing an instrument received a Likert average of 2.1 (second lowest).…”

“…Cellular pre-classification ability of the CellaVision™ DM96 software has been studied by a number of researchers. 10,12,14 Although results have to be verified by a MLP before being released, this feature was not noted in the literature. It was not highly regarded as a limitation by this survey, receiving a Likert average of 2.9, a higher disagreement percent (42.9%) than agreement (32.1%).…”

“…12 Digital images offer potential benefits to improve patient care, clinical accuracy, and educational opportunities. [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17] With new technology in differential reading and pre-classification software, such as the CellaVision™ DM96, (CellaVision AB, Sweden) it is possible that these obstacles can be overcome. The CellaVision™ DM96 offers quality images that can be zoomed, compared side-by-side, converted to a picture (.jpeg) format and viewed simultaneously by other medical personnel.…”