Republished: going glass to digital: virtual microscopy as a simulation-based revolution in pathology and laboratory science.

The recent technological advance of digital high resolution imaging has allowed the field of pathology and medical laboratory science to undergo a dramatic transformation with the incorporation of virtual microscopy as a simulation-based educational and diagnostic tool. This transformation has correlated with an overall increase in the use of simulation in medicine in an effort to address dwindling clinical resource availability and patient safety issues currently facing the modern healthcare system. Virtual microscopy represents one such simulation-based technology that has the potential to enhance student learning and readiness to practice while revolutionising the ability to clinically diagnose pathology collaboratively across the world.

Going glass to digital: virtual microscopy as a simulation-based revolution in pathology and laboratory science.

The recent technological advance of digital high resolution imaging has allowed the field of pathology and medical laboratory science to undergo a dramatic transformation with the incorporation of virtual microscopy as a simulation-based educational and diagnostic tool. This transformation has correlated with an overall increase in the use of simulation in medicine in an effort to address dwindling clinical resource availability and patient safety issues currently facing the modern healthcare system. Virtual microscopy represents one such simulation-based technology that has the potential to enhance student learning and readiness to practice while revolutionising the ability to clinically diagnose pathology collaboratively across the world.

Innovations in applied health: evaluating a simulation-enhanced, interprofessional curriculum.

Background: In response to current trends in healthcare education, teachers at the Michener Institute for Applied Health Sciences implemented a New Curriculum Model (NCM) in 2006, building a curriculum to better transition students from didactic to clinical education. Through the implementation of interprofessional education and simulated clinical scenarios, educators created a setting to develop, contextualize and apply students' skills before entry to the clinical environment.

Aims: In this pilot study, researchers assessed the impact of the NCM intervention on student preparedness for clinical practicum.

Newborn hearts are at greater 'metabolic risk' during global ischemia--advantages of continuous coronary washout.

Background: Altered metabolic responses of the newborn heart to ischemia, which may increase irreversible injury, may at least partially explain the greater morbidity and mortality experienced by some children undergoing congenital cardiac repair. The present study compared newborn heart metabolic responses to global ischemia with those of adult, and evaluated whether continuous coronary artery washout in the newborn heart during 'ischemia' could favourably affect these responses.

Methods: Adult (n=12) and newborn (n=12) pigs were anesthetized, and right ventricular biopsies were taken before global ischemia and at set intervals during ischemia.

Does hyperoxia affect glucose regulation and transport in the newborn?

Objective: Hyperglycemia has been found to occur in children placed on cardiopulmonary bypass. Our laboratory demonstrated that hyperoxia plays a role in this hyperglycemic response and also occurs in the absence of cardiopulmonary bypass. The purpose of this study was to elucidate potential mechanisms underlying the hyperoxic-induced hyperglycemia by examining glucagon, insulin, and epinephrine, which are important in glucose regulation and skeletal and cardiac glucose transporters (GLUT1 and GLUT4), which facilitate glucose entry.