Telepatologia no Brasil: desenvolvimento de protótipo de aplicativo móvel para auxílio educacional do patologista

Abstract

The present work aims to describe the prototype of the mobile application called Pathohelp, which is intended to be a collaborative educational support tool for pathologists and residents in pathological anatomy, offering, in a safe environment, the possibility of discussing clinical cases with images of histopathological slides. For the realization of the project, initially, bibliographic research was carried out regarding the practice of telepathology, as well as the comparison between market applications. The applications (apps) Pocket Pathologist and GP-Helper, among others, already on the market, were studied for a comparative analysis of the user's journey, features offered, registration items and programming language used. The selection of mandatory fields for clinical pathological cases was carried out based on reports from renowned laboratories in the market and also through the use of the Manual of Standardization of Histopathological Reports of the Brazilian Society of Pathology. The prototype, as a result, was developed on a web platform, with a simple interface, aiming at greater usability. Pathology Education is traditionally done through stored sets of glass slides and textbooks. The reduced number of pathologists and their large concentration in the South and Southeast regions of Brazil impose logistical difficulties for the training of these professionals. Through PathoHelp, pathologists from all over the country can discuss cases with the inclusion of images of histopathological slides captured by the smartphone through the microscope eyepiece. In addition to sharing knowledge between Pathologists, PathoHelp will enable the education of these specialists in the use of telepathology tools. This is another great challenge, since the Pathologist is traditionally resistant to the use of technologies.