Using an Amiga for Medical Education | VCFMW 19 (2024)

This presentation is the story of how an Amiga was used to give the first all-digital presentation at any large medical conference, using only an Amiga 4000, Scala, and a video projector starting in 1993. This was during a time when all other medical education presentations in all fields of medicine were made using 2 x 2 photographic slides in carousels on a slide projector. This "presentation about a presentation" will cover the early days of how images were digitized using the Amiga, and how digital images and other assets were utilized for pathology reports and teaching. The original talk was to pathologists, by pathologists. The presentation will utilize an Amiga computer to show parts of the original presentation, with minor modifications. Virtually all medical education conferences are now given by laptops and digital projectors.

Dr. Peter K. Shireman, a Board-Certified Pathologist who practiced community-based pathology in Kansas and Michigan, was one of the three architects of the "Digital Imaging in Pathology" course in the early 1990s using only an Amiga platform. He later served on the Informatics Committee of the American Society of Clinical Pathologists (ASCP). The course was given over 5 years at ASCP and College of American Pathologists national meetings.
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