For the majority of the last decade, LMP Pathologist, Dr. Andy Evans has made annual trips to the University of West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica – to teach, learn, and help advance the country’s pathology practice.
This year marked Dr. Evans’ seventh year as an external examiner for Jamaica’s board pathology certification. Similar to the Canadian system, the certification is something all pathology residents must pass to practice, and comes after four years of residency training.
In addition to conducting the written, practical and oral examination, external examiners often look to share some of their own expertise with residents and physicians through slide seminars and various lectures.
Last year, Dr. Evans introduced the team to digital pathology and the power of using digital slides to build teaching collections, and share interesting cases.
This year, in addition to his on-site teaching in Jamaica, Dr. Evans setup an online education session he could lead from Toronto, and was able to help residents practice and prepare for their examination.
He sent seven teaching cases, two weeks in advance, and asked residents and other participants to review the cases and determine different diagnoses and possible ancillary testing. Once everyone had time to review the cases, an online teaching session was conducted via Google Hangouts and through open discussion and screen sharing of the whole-slide image – a new approach for simple, cross-border education sessions was established.
Following the online practice, Residents performed very well in the official board examination. And now, with a new way to bridge departments – pathologist, Dr. Runjan Chetty and Jamaican born LMP fellow, Dr. Shara-Gaye Allen will be conducting online sessions for University of West Indies’ students in the new year.
The Pathology Report 
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