Abstract
For a long time, histology has been a well-established, fundamental part of many biomedical curricula. As it provides a bridge from the macroscopic field of gross anatomy to the molecular sciences such as biochemistry, physiology and pharmacology, histology constitutes a central link between the visible and the submicroscopic dimension. In addition, by contrasting normal tissue structures and functions with changes seen under disease conditions it serves as a gateway to pathology. Histology as a scientific field and as an educational subject has always relied on technology, initially the introductions of reliable, high-quality light microscopes about 150 years ago. This enabled students and researchers to analyze tissues and cell structures at an increasingly smaller scale.
Highlights
For a long time, histology has been a well-established, fundamental part of many biomedical curricula
By contrasting normal tissue structures and functions with changes seen under disease conditions it serves as a gateway to pathology
One of which is the abandonment of traditional light microscopes in favor of digital histological images, referred to as “virtual microscopy” [4,5,6,7,8,9]
Summary
Histology has been a well-established, fundamental part of many biomedical curricula. I would like to use the experiences, which we made using virtual microscopy for teaching histology at the University of Michigan, to discuss the advantages and disadvantages, as well as future possibilities these new technologies provide to us for teaching a traditional subject to today’s computer-savvy generation of students and how these students make increasing use of virtual microscopy and other electronic resources. Students have been studying sets of histological glass slides by regular light microscopy.
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