Digital Slide Conferencing with SecondSlide

Digital Slide Conferencing is a key capability which makes many things easier; the ability to use computers as a multi-headed microscope where the various heads are at different locations is most powerful.  It facilitates secondary consultations, tumor boards, frozen section interpretation, peer review, overreads, and many teaching applications.

Did you know?  You can use Digital Slide Conferencing with SecondSlide cases!

A key value of SecondSlide is that it enables pathologists at different locations and on different networks to share digital slides and case information.  Combining that capablity with conferencing leads to many useful applications.

Let's walk through an example to show how easy this is*.  First, assume I have shared a case with Dr. Smith.  (Please see Using SecondSlide to share any images with anyone and Using SecondSlide to share cases from Spectrum for more information.)  Now let's say she and I want to review this case together in a conference.

I begin by signing on to SecondSlide and finding the case I've shared in the Shared Cases list:

I click the yellow folder icon to opens the Case Details page for the case.

Next I select the slides I want to review:

I check the boxes next to the slides I want, and click View Images.  ImageScope opens with the slides displayed*:

So far this has all been me reviewing slides for a case.  Now we start the conference.  I select View | Digital Slide Conferencing and get this dialog box:

I click the DSC Server... button to display this dialog:

I leave the defaults of dsc.scanscope.com and port 80, enter my Screen Name, and click Login.  This logs me into the conferencing server.  Now I click Create Conference to display this dialog:

I enter the name of my conference ("consult with Dr. Smith") and click OK.  This creates a conference and logs me in as the Leader.

Yes, it was that easy!

Now Dr. Smith can join the conference.  She launches ImageScope* on her computer - miles away in another city - and selects View | Digital Slide Conferencing:

She clicks the DSC Server... button to display this dialog:

Like me she accepts the defaults of dsc.scanscope.com and port 80, then enters her Screen Name and clicks Login.  She sees the following:

The conference I created is displayed.  She selects it and clicks Join Conference.  She becomes a participate in the conference and the following dialog is displayed:

The conference now has two participants, Dr. Smith and myself.  I am the current leader as shown by the little yellow baton icon. 

At the same time, the two digital slides I was viewing are also opened in Dr. Smith's viewer:

And now we have a digital slide conference!  As I select images, pan, and zoom, she will see everything I see.  I can draw annotations and she'll see them.  I can open new slides and they'll be display for her.  I can also pass Leadership to her, and then she can control the conference, until she passes control back to me.  Pretty cool.

So, Digital Slide Conferencing is a most useful capability, and SecondSlide allows you to share digital slides with others who are not on your network.  The combination of the two is most powerful.  Please try it!

 

*All participants in a conference must have Aperio's ImageScope software installed; you can download it FREE from the Aperio website.