Current experiences with Internet telepathology and possible evolution in the next generation of Internet services

The last five years experience has definitely demonstrated the possible app lications of the Internet for telepathology. They may be listed as follows: (a) teleconsultation via multimedia e-mail; (b) teleconsultation via web-b ased tools; (c) distant education by means of World Wide Web; (d) virtual m icroscope management through Web and Java interfaces; (e) real-time consult ations through Internet-based videoconferencing. Such applications have led to the recognition of some important limits of the Internet, when dealing with telemedicine: (i) no guarantees on the quality of service (QoS); (ii) inadequate security and privacy; (iii) for some countries, low bandwidth an d thus low responsiveness for real-time applications. Currently, there are several innovations in the world of the Internet. Different initiatives hav e been aimed at an amelioration of the Internet protocols, in order to have quality of service, multimedia support, security and other advanced servic es, together with greater bandwidth. The forthcoming Internet improvements, although induced by electronic comme rce, video on demand, and other commercial needs, are of real interest also for telemedicine, because they solve the limits currently slowing down the use of Internet. When such new services will be available, telepathology a pplications may switch from research to daily practice in a fast way.