Microscopic Skills, Unfolding Nationwide: A Review of the Cellular Morphology Competition

Publication Time:

2024-06-16 16:37

Source:

To enhance the cell morphology identification capabilities of laboratory personnel, a national cell morphology competition titled "Microscopic Skills, Outstanding Abilities" was held on June 15, 2024. This competition was jointly organized by the China Association of Maternal and Child Health Care and its Clinical Diagnosis and Laboratory Medicine Branch, and took place at the grassroots maternal and child laboratory medicine sub-forum of the 7th Maternal and Child Clinical Diagnosis and Laboratory Medicine Conference.

Figure 1: Contestants focusing on answering questions on the "Aiwei Zhijian" mini-program.

Morphological examination is a fundamental, practical, and direct diagnostic method in clinical laboratories. With the development of artificial intelligence technology, the identification capabilities of automated instruments have continuously improved, becoming an important tool to help laboratory personnel improve work efficiency. However, as the creators of artificial intelligence, we still need to continuously improve our morphological skills, continue to act as "teachers" for the instruments, correct the results of incorrect instrument identification, guide the instrument to identify difficult and rare cells, and thus further promote the new development of artificial intelligence morphology technology.
This competition received technical support from Aiwei Technology's Smart Medical Department. Aiwei Technology possesses strong technical strength and extensive data accumulation in the field of automated morphological microscopy. To provide a platform for learning, exchange, and skill demonstration for a wide range of clinical laboratory workers and cell morphology enthusiasts, Aiwei Technology independently developed the "Aiwei Zhijian" education and examination system, providing it free of charge to various academic organizations, industry associations, medical centers, and clinical testing centers for online education, skills competitions, and qualification examinations. Aiwei Technology hopes to use this platform to attract morphology enthusiasts, stimulate enthusiasm for learning morphological professional knowledge, improve the morphological identification capabilities and levels of laboratory personnel, contribute to the standardization and homogenization of testing results in medical institutions at all levels, and promote the balanced development of medical testing as a whole.
The "Aiwei Zhijian" education and examination system not only has flexible and convenient functions for question entry, test paper generation, and examination settings, but also has real-time examination score ranking and wrong question statistics functions. It allows users to initiate examinations and compile results anytime and anywhere, saving time, effort, money, and being quick, convenient, and efficient!

Figure 2: "Aiwei Zhijian" Education and Examination System.

This competition was presided over by Director Gao Haiyan from the Department of Laboratory Medicine, the Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University. Four experts provided on-site comments and explanations on questions with higher error rates: Professor Wang Jianbiao from the Department of Laboratory Medicine, Ruijin Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine; Director Zhang Xiaowei from the Department of Laboratory Medicine, Changchun Children's Hospital; Professor Wu Mao from the Zhejiang Provincial People's Hospital Center for Laboratory Medicine; and Director Wu Ping from the Lu Daopei Hospital Cell Morphology Room.

Figure 3: Experts providing on-site comments.

"Revealing the truth under the microscope." Superb morphological skills require not only a solid theoretical foundation but also rich experience. This competition not only showcased the morphological technical level of outstanding laboratory personnel from various provinces and cities but also fully demonstrated the rigorous, focused, and pragmatic professional qualities of morphological workers, further igniting the enthusiasm of laboratory personnel nationwide for learning about cell morphology. The outstanding performance of the contestants and the wonderful lectures by the experts not only provided a feast of knowledge and skills but also highlighted the core concept of the competition: "promoting learning through competition."

Figure 4: On-site award ceremony.

Through the joint efforts of "laboratory personnel" and "machines," while applying artificial intelligence automated microscopy technology, we believe that emphasizing the training and improvement of laboratory personnel's morphological skills will better leverage the role of morphological testing in disease diagnosis and treatment. This will provide high-value, accurate diagnostic information for clinicians and the most economical and efficient testing services for patients, promoting the high-quality development of China's clinical testing industry and benefiting the health of the people!