Sharing Virtual Slides

There are various possibilities to share virtual slides online.

1. Sharing the scanned files using standard file sharing services

The first approach to share scanned files with colleagues is by sharing or sending the original scanned files.

Using services like Dropbox or Google Drive, a shared folder for collaboration can be created. All files that are stored are synced across multiple computers in the background.

The files can be viewed using Desktop WSI viewer applications. The complete file has to be uploaded to share it and the whole file has to be downloaded to view it.

2. Uploading the scans to a WSI Cloud service

Viewing whole slide images online requires cloud services specialized on presenting Whole Slide Images. For example, easyzoom.com and proscia.com provide this service.

The scan has to be uploaded to the cloud and after a few minutes of processing, it can be shared and viewed on a website without the need to download the whole scan first. The virtual slides can be visible to everyone or the access can be limited.

3. Collaborate using Screensharing

Discussing virtual slides can be done easily using screen sharing applications like TeamViewer. After scanning, the virtual slide is opened using a WSI viewer.

Then the screen of this computer is shared with a colleague using TeamViewer, Skype or similar screen sharing technology.

4. Share scans using a local virtual slide server (InstaSlide)

InstaSlide is run on the computer that contains the scanned images. It can make all these slides available as zoomable website within seconds. No need to upload the scan in advance.

5. Live Teleconsultation via SlidePeek

SlidePeek allows live telemicroscopy. The operator of the microscope creates pre scans at 10x magnification for all slides that belong to a case. Then, these slides are made available as a zoomable website.

The remote expert can then view these slides and request high magnification scans of sub regions. The operator of the microscope will then switch to 40x magnification and is guided to the requested location and will then capture the relevant data.

PreScan in 10x takes 1-3 minutes. Capturing 10-20 locations at 40x image quality takes 2-3 minutes.