The basic diagnostic approaches used in robotic still-image telepathology

We investigated the basic diagnostic processes used in telepathology with o ur robotic still-image system, OLMICOS, by analysing the steps and patterns used in 20 consecutive tissue section diagnoses. Three basic approaches we re recognized. One was magnifying a suspect finding in a low-powered micros copic image. This approach was used mostly for confirming or characterizing a tumour. The second approach was scanning over a low-powered image by mag nifying square images to form a mesh. This was found to be useful to confir m the presence or absence of signs and was mostly used as the initial step in judging the surgical margin of malignant cases or diagnosing lesions. Th e third approach was a combination of these two and was used for delineatin g the surgical margin, confirming the absence of metastases or diagnosing d ifficult lesions. Recognition of these three basic diagnostic approaches is important in making a rapid and correct remote diagnosis.