Patent ID: 7027633

Claim:
A system comprising: a microscope that provides an image of a biological specimen in digital form, the microscope responsive to a control signal to change a parameter used to obtain the image of the biological specimen, the parameter including at least one of an objective lens, a focus, a light level, and a specimen position; a database that includes one or more pathology profiles associated with one or more pathologies, the one or more pathology profiles derived from images of one or more other biological specimens having one or more pathologies; a decision support system that processes the image from the microscope to obtain an image profile, the image profile including descriptive data of the image, the decision support system comparing the image profile to the one or more pathology profiles in the database to identify one or more of the one or more pathologies that are candidates for a pathology associated with the biological specimen; and a client interface through which one or more remote users receive the image of the biological specimen and provide input to the system including at least one of generating the control signal to the microscope, communicating with other ones of the one or more remote users, and controlling operation of the decision support system.