TelePi: An Affordable, Self-Assembled and Open-Source Telepathology Camera System

Telepathology enables histological diagnoses through sharing expertise between pathologists and offers potential benefits for teaching and research collaborations. However, the associated costs are often prohibitively high, especially in low-resource settings where telepathology would have the greatest impact due to a shortage of pathologists. We constructed a telepathology system (TelePi) for under €120 using the Raspberry Pi Zero single-board computer and its High-Quality Camera Module, along with a standard microscope and open-source software on a Linux operating system. The system does not require any extra hardware, maintenance expenses, or service agreements. Moreover, it is compact, portable, shareable across multiple microscopes, and independent of other computer operating systems. TelePi utilizes a responsive and high-resolution web-based live stream, enabling remote consultation between two or more locations. The system offers numerous potential applications, including telepathology for remote diagnosis of frozen sections, and serving as a standard microscope camera for general imaging as well as for medical student training and basic research purposes. When used in conjunction with the open-source image analysis software Fiji, the TelePi system permits high-resolution multiple image stitching, creating a single large image that exceeds the field of view of the chosen objective. The TelePi system's quality compares favorably to a commercially available telepathology system that costs over 125 times more. Furthermore, the system produces still images of publication quality that are equivalent to those produced by a whole slide scanner costing 800 times more. In summary, TelePi is an affordable and versatile camera system that has the potential to enable telepathology in low-resource settings while maintaining image quality. It is a cost-effective solution that could prove invaluable in providing access to expert remote pathology consultations with a limited budget.