VIRTUAL MICROSCOPY IN HISTOLOGY AND PATHOLOGY EDUCATION AT THE FACULTY OF MEDICINE, UNIVERSITY OF NOVI SAD.

Both histology and pathology as a scientific fields and as an educational subjects have always relied on technology. In the 19th century a major breakthrough happened in certain areas related to histotechnology, so histology and pathology were rapidly developing. Technological revolution has lead to modernization of histology and pathology teaching, resulting in virtual microscopy. Advantage of virtual microscopy is an improved way of teaching and better cost-effectiveness. As a method of histology and pathology teaching, it was implemented at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Novi Sad in 2016, in a specially equipped classroom at the Institute of Histology and Embryology. Virtual Local Area Network segregation is enabled in this classroom, which allows network traffic from different groups of users to be securely segregated, creating an independent environment for each student's computer. Students can simultaneously view audio-visual contents on their monitors, on projector screen and on 6 large 55-inch screens. Preexisting microscope glass slides with most representative tissue or organ sections and optimal staining quality were selected and scanned with NanoZoomer S210 Digital slide scanner - Hamamatsu that can rapidly scan glass slides and convert them to digital data. For viewing digital slides we use NDP.view2 program. It allows moving, rotating, zooming and focusing of digital slides via the mouse or keyboard. Program enables morphometric measurements, colorful special pointers, annotations on slides and “bird's-eye-view”. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]