Review of Head Neck Pathology by Lester D.R. Thompson, M.D.

The Head and Neck Pathology CD ROM from Universal Multimedia, Inc. is a straight forward easy to use CD which teaches head and neck pathology. The disk contains over 250 high resolution slides with 3 hours of detailed narration regarding the slide's pathological appearance and diagnosis. The slides are viewed with a control panel that runs a movie (see Figure 1). As the narrator talks, arrows move on the slide pointing out the histological features. There is also a camera feature which allows the buyer to download the pictures to his or her computer, to be used in non-commercial lectures or for personnel reference.

A menu and index page allows the user to jump to the desired pathology. There are four categories of diseases: ear, larynx, neck and sinonasal Tract. Each category is divided into iInflammatory, benign, and malignant sections. A very detailed description of the histology, histological variations and how to differentiate from other similar diseases is presented for each diagnosis. The only short coming I could find is that, there is often only very short descriptions of the epidemiology, incidence, prognosis and treatment for each disease state. This information is often presented in one sentence. To be fair to the author, the addition of this information would add significantly to the complexity of the presentation.

This CD ROM illustrates the utility of computer based systems in education. The publication of 250 color pictures can be done much more cost-efficiently on CD ROM than in print. The ability to easily download the pictures to be used in non-commercial teaching lectures (with the release of copyright for this use) is also a very nice feature and represents a true desire of the author to promote education. I highly recommend this product for the study and learning of head and neck pathology.


Annals of Otolaryngology
USA

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Last Updated by John Sylora, M.D.: 5/20/09