“Nicolae Testemitanu” University has been equipped with a high-performance scanner – a digital imaging system – a project realized and funded by the Department for Relations with the Republic of Moldova within the Government of Romania

Nicolae Testemitanu State University of Medicine and Pharmacy was equipped with a high-performance scanner – a digital imaging system of histological, cytological and immunohistochemical slides – a project realized and financed by the Department for Relations with the Republic of Moldova (DRRM) within the Government of Romania. The handover protocol of the technical equipment was signed on November 17, 2023, by Adrian Dupu, the State Secretary of the DRRM, and the university rector Emil Ceban. 

The Nicolae Testemitanu University rector, Professor Emil Ceban, mentioned that starting today the scientific-didactic staff, students, resident doctors, and practitioners would have the opportunity to teach and study the Morphopathology discipline using advanced technologies. "They will use modern technologies in the educational process, a fact that will have a significant impact both on the quality of the study process and the clinical training of future doctors in the country, as well as on scientific research in the field. The scanner is a valuable resource that will enable study beneficiaries and researchers to acquire the necessary skills to establish the diagnosis and treatment of various diseases. With this donation, we are getting closer to our goals of improving the medical education system and medical assistance according to European standards, thus supporting the aspirations of the Republic of Moldova to join the European Union", the rector stated.

For his part, Adrian Dupu, the State Secretary of the Department for Relations with the Republic of Moldova (DRRM) within the Romanian government, emphasized that the high-performance scanner would make the work of teaching staff, resident doctors, and researchers more efficient.

"I'm glad that we managed to support Nicolae Testemitanu University in providing quality education, which cannot be ensured without high-performance equipment, as well as in improving the health of the citizens of the Republic of Moldova. This is the first project implemented with your university, but we want to continue to develop other projects to support education in the Republic of Moldova, as quality education cannot exist without the necessary infrastructure and equipment. That's why, through what we do, we try to improve the study conditions for students", Adrian Dupu pointed out. 

"It was a dream come true for us - to be among the few universities in Europe that have already implemented this digitization system for studying surgical, gynecological, neuropathological pathologies, etc. We are in the era of digitization, when future doctors are used to new technologies, and through this system we will attract even more specialists to study both pathology and the medicine of the future", stressed Professor Eugen Melnic, head of the Department of Morphopathology, highlighting the fact that only seven European universities apply that system to study pathologies. 

In the end, the rector expressed his gratitude to the Government of Romania and the State Secretary of DRRM for the substantial support offered to our university and other higher education institutions in the Republic of Moldova, reiterating the aspiration of the academic community for a lasting collaboration with Romanian partners. 

Later, the pathologists demonstrated how the digital imaging system works, how it produces whole-slide and live-view images of the slide, using software that allows examining the entire slide or a portion and enlarging the image at high resolution. The slide images can be stored on a server and a digital slide can be created, which will streamline the study and research process in the field of morphopathology, but also in other disciplines.

The advantages of this high-performance scanner are: full or partial scanning of the blade with a bright field; viewing the images of scanned slides on any computer and by an unlimited number of students at the same time, which facilitates dialogue and group study; eliminates the need to set up and maintain microscope slide labs; slides can be prepared from the best histological, cytological and immunohistochemical specimens for teaching purposes and for modern research; the need to prepare several sets of blades for learning disappears; allows the exchange of slides between universities so that a high-quality slide library can be developed rapidly at minimal cost and can include slides that would be difficult or impossible to prepare locally (such as slides with specific immunohistochemical stains representing rare diseases in the Republic of Moldova etc.). At the same time, the system allows identification of cases using barcodes, thus personal data is protected, has flexible settings for different tissue properties and a wide range of image resolutions.

The "Pannoramic" scanner was installed in the Histopathology Laboratory of the Department of Morphopathology. The value of the donation is about 60 thousand euros.