Over 500 histopathologic samples of stained tissue have been digitized and annotated with all relevant details as well as educational descriptions. “Virtual Microscopy“ enables online and decentralized access to valuable and scarce samples for education via the internet. Students can sign up to different courses matching with their skill level, select specimen using specific keywords such as body part or diagnostic findings and assess thoses “Virtual Slides“ via the Internet. Navigation of large “Virtual Slides“ is realized in an intuitive way similar to “Google Maps“. At the click of a mouse, the image can be viewed with a specific degree of enlargement (5x, 10x, 20x, 40x) or with seamless zooming. Image details which present the relevant tissue changes or other characteristics are interactively labeled.
Since the summer term 2011 the platform is online and continuously expanded. Thanks to a cooperation with the Virtual University of Bavaria (“Virtuelle Hochschule Bayern“) and the university of Regensburg “Virtual Slides“ are also accessible for students in Regensburg and other Bavarian universities since summer term 2012. Further extensions for distributed research and education as well as quality control reviews are currently developed.