Della Mea, V. 2011. 25 years of telepathology research: a bibliometric analysis. DIAGNOSTIC PATHOLOGY 6: art. no.-S26, Suppl. 1

[Eugene Garfield]

Della Mea, V. 2011. 25 years of telepathology research: a bibliometric analysis. 
DIAGNOSTIC PATHOLOGY 6: art. no.-S26, Suppl. 1. presented at 10th 
European Congress on Telepathology/4th International Congress on Virtual 
Microscopy in Vilnius, LITHUANIA, JUL 01-03, 2010.

Author Full Name(s): Della Mea, Vincenzo
Language: English
Document Type: Proceedings Paper
KeyWords Plus: PUBLICATION OUTPUT; TELEMEDICINE

Abstract: Background: The first appearance of the word "telepathology" in a 
scientific paper can be tracked down to 1986, in a famous editorial of Ronald 
Weinstein. Since that paper, research in telepathology grew up developing 
different subfields, including static and dynamic telepathology and more 
recently virtual microscopy. The present work attempts an analysis of research 
in telepathology, starting from the tools provided by bibliometrics.
Methods: A query has been developed to extract papers related to 
telepathology and virtual microscopy, and it has been then submitted to 
Pubmed by means of Entrez Utilities functions. Results obtained in XML have 
been processed through ad-hoc developed PHP scripts, in order to extract data 
on Authors, countries, and keywords.
Results: On PubMed, 967 papers related to telepathology and virtual 
microscopy have been retrieved, which involved 2904 Authors; corresponding 
authors were from 37 countries. Of those authors, 2213 co-authored just one 
paper. Papers were published on 344 different journals, of which only 52 from 
the Pathology field. An analysis of papers per year has been also attempted, 
that demonstrates variable research output in time.
Conclusions: From the proposed analysis, telepathology seems to have been 
consistently studied, in time, by about 400 researchers, with occasional 
participation of many other people. Telepathology research seems also to have 
varied in time, although some peaks in paper publishing are certainly related to 
the proceedings of the European congress on telepathology series, when they 
have been published on journals. However, some clear sign appears that 
suggests research in traditional telepathology, after a peak in 2000, showed 
some decline until virtual microscopy became mainstream, topic that currently 
pushes research again. The low number of clinical trials calls for more 
randomized studies in telepathology, to enable evidence-based application.

Addresses: Univ Udine, Med Informat Telemed & eHlth Lab, Dept Math & Comp 
Sci, I-33100 Udine, Italy
Reprint Address: Della Mea, V, Univ Udine, Med Informat Telemed & eHlth Lab, 
Dept Math & Comp Sci, I-33100 Udine, Italy.

E-mail Address: vincenzo.dellamea at uniud.it
ISSN: 1746-1596
DOI: 10.1186/1746-1596-6-S1-S26
Fulltext: http://www.diagnosticpathology.org/content/6/S1/S26