The microscopic world of cells has gone digital. For medical and other health students relying on this sort of data, this is a big deal about small stuff. Park the microscope, welcome to virtual microscopy. 

 “This is a vital new teaching tool, an educational enhancement, a very big improvement in how we present microscopic material to our students,” says Mary Ann Sens, M.D., Ph.D., professor and chair of the medical school’s Department of Pathology. Sens also is Grand Forks (N.D.) county coroner. “The real focus of this technology in terms of how we teach is that it helps students focus on the patient-centered curriculum. It puts the focus of the learning on patient care.”

Virtual microscopy has revolutionized the teaching of two core subjects in the curriculum for students in the medical and allied health professions. The first is histology, the microscopic study of body tissues; next is pathology, the study of diseased and other abnormal tissues, notes Jane Dunlevy, Ph.D., associate professor and research scientist in the medical school’s Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, and a colleague of Sens.

Briefly defined, the virtual microscope presents students with pre-capture images as if they were using a “real” microscope in real time. The student viewing the image also has much greater control over where exactly to navigate on the image—they can look in detail at a portion of the image. Virtual microscopy—all computer-based—delivers what the traditional optical microscope does and then some, says Sens. Another advantage of virtual microscopy is that images can be posted on computer networks, allowing much greater freedom of access for students. They’re no longer locked into fixed lab schedules.

Jane Dunlevy, Ph.D., and Mary Ann Sens, M.D., Ph.D.

The technology is now available on a student’s computer screen and represents the convergence of many advanced technologies, Sens and Dunlevy say. In particular, it took major advances in memory technology and in image storage and retrieval systems. Even today, most digital microscope images are much too big to be sent wholesale over the Internet. Instead, algorithms portion out a given image into the specific piece of it that a student wants to look at. That also takes a lot of processing power and speed. 

“We’re now just getting to the point where we can see how bacteria operate,” Sens says. “With the virtual microscope, we’re now at the resolving power of the best optical microscopes.”

And, Dunlevy explains, that means students can look on their computer screens at the structure of tissues. This is histology, a look at cell-level samples that tell you what makes a heart a heart and a brain a brain. 

The technology now available on a student’s computer screen represents the convergence of many advanced technologies.  In particular, it took major advances in memory technology and in image storage and retrieval systems.

  “All physicians are trained in histology,” she says. “It’s the basic tool that lets you know how healthy tissue is supposed to look and what’s the normal range for healthy.”

In pathology, students basically study disease.  “You have to be well-grounded in histology to understand what’s normal and what normal variance is before you can understand what’s abnormal,” says Sens. “Examination of a pathology sample will show you whether you’re looking at an infection, a tumor, or a congenital abnormality that just showed up.” 

Before virtual microscopy made it into the medical school, students shared optical microscopes. Though professionally prepared slides were excellent, there simply weren’t enough optical microscopes to go around, so students worked in groups around an instrument. Moreover, Sens points out, there was a limited number of faculty and graduate students to come around and show them how things worked.

“And let’s not forget that, though good, the optical microscopes they were using were student microscopes—by definition, they are not diagnostic-quality instruments,” Sens says. “So they were great for getting a good overview, but students couldn’t use them outside of class time. The histology and pathology labs had set hours, so a student couldn’t use them to review at will.”

With the virtual microscope, students now can access those vital digital slides at 3 a.m. or any other time of day. “The images are available on any computer in the building.  A student can come in, turn on the computer, review the slides,” Sens says.