Reflections on Pathology and “Web 2.0”

Abstract

In this issue of the Journal , Schreiber and Giustini1 provide a concise overview of the ways in which “Web 2.0” has affected—and will influence—the teaching and practice of pathology. As they indicate, the “2.0” designation has become a shorthand way of describing an enhanced capacity for interactivity on Internet sites through a number of associated applications. Another article in this issue, by Shirts et al,2 illustrates this very property. Web users now have the ability to build sites with integrated photographs, 3-dimensional images of various types, movies, music and other audio files, animated illustrations, “chat” functions, and Internet-based short message services (SMS,3 as exemplified by “Twitter”4). In that context, Schreiber and Giustini1 outline the possibilities for the use of 2.0 capabilities by pathologists. As they indicate, continuing medical education (CME) is one of the principal targets of such technology. Without much exaggeration, one can envision a future situation in which real-time streaming audio-video presentations can be accompanied by high-resolution images, problems for the Web audience to solve—with immediate collation of results—and concurrent chat room or SMS-type interchanges between participants and presenters. This format could be used for medical school–level educational activities, off-site residency training, CME, or board-associated maintenance of certification processes. Indeed, at least 1 online professional school—Concord Law School of Kaplan University—already structures its mode of instruction along those lines, together with the use of reading assignments in hard-copy legal texts.5 That particular school of law is presently recognized only by the state of California, with regard to the eligibility of its graduates for the state bar examination. However, its dean, Barry Currier, JD, is a former consultant on legal education for the American Bar Association who believes that distance learning of the law is here to stay.6 When the stress …