Histoscan.com portal for distance exams
Since March 16, 2020, the Minister of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation has signed an order obliging «to organize training of students outside the location of universities, including ensuring that they master educational programs using distance technologies».
The Higher Medical School turned to the format of distance learning and distant examinations. An urgent task has arisen to find software that allows for training in the framework of professional histology education with the possibility of online viewing of micropreparations.
"We have developed the HistoScan educational platform for remote consulting, getting a second opinion and conducting training events online. It’s a cloud storage of digital micro and macro - images, clinical information and lecture material. HistoScan.com unites more than 3 000 users today. More than 100 digital slides are uploaded to the examination platform every day. And the distancing caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has given the resource a new impulse of activity on the part of users,"- says Vladimir Tsimberg, founder of «Histoscan.com».
"On the basis of the Department of Pathology and Forensic Medicine of ST. Petersburg Medical and social institute a remote examination in pathology was organized and successfully conducted. We used the existing digital archive of scanned micro and macro-images, which are studied within the framework of the subject and correspond to the FGOS 3+. To prepare for practical exams, students of our institute used an electronic manual on pathology: interactive electronic educational publication Kogan E.A., Bekhtereva I.A., Ponomareva A.B. We chose the HistoScan.com platform for the exam . Examination cards contained 1 macro -, 2 micro-images and theoretical questions. Cards were distributed through a random number generator", – notes Irina Bekhtereva, MD, Head of the Department of Pathology and Forensic Medicine of the SPbMSI, pathologist of the Pathoanatomic Department of Clinical Molecular Morphology of the Northwestern State Medical University named after I.I. Mechnikov.
HistoScan education is a convenient tool for conducting distance learning seminars and examination events. It is a platform for generating training guides, pathology maps, presentations and creating interactive microslide-based training and test programs. Lecturers can upload real cases from practice to the platform, while respecting the protection of personal data. Students get the opportunity to learn not from dry theory from textbooks, but from real examples that they may encounter in their clinical practice.
The result of training using the portal is a full-fledged medical education based on real clinical cases. The possibilities of access to the educational process are not limited by the time and the actual location of the student. Course materials and educational programs are securely stored on the platform with 24/7 access. Students can access them from any device connected to the Internet. Students may also have access to knowledge from highly qualified specialists, communication with whom in full-time format is not always possible.
The surge in demand for the Histoscan platform during the pandemic is largely attributed to the popularity of the HistoScan in the university environment. Over the past two months, the number of users registered on the platform has increased by more than 15%, and the volume of daily downloads of material has increased by 30-40% per month.
"Even if further education in Russia returns to the usual format, Histoscan can still be used for practical classes and exams, and other medical universities will probably also use this platform,"- says Svetlana Makarenko, First Vice-rector of SPBMSI.
