Case and Slide Submission FAQ

Below you will find answers to frequently asked questions about case submission and slide submission.

Case Submission Questions

What is the case submission deadline?

You must submit your case 30 days prior to the course start date. See the case submission page for upcoming submission deadlines.

When should I start working on my AIRP case submission?

We recommend that residents begin seeking a rad-path correlation case during their first or second year of residency. You should be gathering the required case materials such as reports, imaging and pathology to submit a case prior to the posted case submission deadline.

Online case submission opens 90 days prior to your course start date. You may begin your case submission as soon as your registration is confirmed and the course is open online. A courtesy email welcome letter is sent out to registrants but is not required to begin casework online.

Log in to the case submission system Case Submission page using your ACR login username and password.

What is PHI?

Protected health information (PHI) includes any patient identifiers, such as name, date of birth, medical record number, account number, exam number, encounter number, ID number, and any other number associated with a patient.

Physicians and institution names are also PHI and should be removed from medical case reports and imaging.

All contact information regarding the patient, doctor or hospital will be removed from case reports and imaging, such as address, phone number, email, web address, barcodes, etc.

Residents must remove ALL protected health information from every document and image related to their case, in accordance with HIPAA regulations.

How will I know if my case has been accepted?

After clicking “Submit Case Package,” you will receive confirmation that your case has been successfully submitted. If there is an administrative problem or if the section head requires additional material, we will notify you. We will also notify you when your case passes the online portion of case submission. Cases are NOT COMPLETE until the pathological slides are submitted with a signed verification/consent form.

It is imperative that you provide an accurate, preferably personal, email address that you check frequently. We will use this email to reach you throughout the course.

What should I do if my case does not have gross specimen images?

We strongly suggest that you prepare a case with gross imaging. Intraoperative and scope images are acceptable substitutes for the gross pathology images.

Each section chief has discretion to accept a case without gross pathology. Neuro section does not accept any cases without gross imaging.

If you would like to request a gross imaging waiver, please email the section chief, providing case details, diagnosis, reason for no imaging, and any other pertinent information that may help faculty decide whether to grant a waiver. If granted, you will need to include a screenshot of the waiver in place of the gross image requirement.

My pathology department will not release the specimen ID number. What number should I enter for the specimen ID?

Your pathologist may change the number on the slides and record the new number on the pathology report. We ask that the new number labeled on the slides appears on both the signed verification/consent form and the uploaded pathology report. This will verify that the pathologic material belongs to the case you submitted online.

The pathologist may want to keep a record of the new numbers assigned to AIRP cases.

Must my case be rare?

A case does not need to be a rare case to show great correlation. Having radiologic-pathologic correlation is the aim of the course and is best fulfilled by meeting the requirements of the case submission package. The components of a great radiologic-pathologic correlation case: good representative radiologic, gross and histologic images, as well as the histology slides from your pathology department.

Where can I find examples of the best cases from previous courses?

Best case presentations selected from past courses can be found on the Best Cases page.

I cannot upload DICOM images. Can you help me?

Please use a PC, as the system does not work well on Mac computers. Be sure to download and install the Silverlight app as well.

It may help to clear the cache and browsing history, or try using a different browser.

Save anonymized DICOM images (normally in .dcm format) to your desktop first. You must upload each series from the entire case study.

We also recommend uploading smaller groups of files rather attempting to upload all files at the same time. For example, if you have 100 images, try uploading in two groups of 50 images each.

You cannot put all the files in one zipped folder and upload because the naming convention in each folder may be similar, which will overwrite the other folder files. As a result, the studies will appear inadequate and require additional work on your part. See instructional video here.

Watch the instruction video below for additional guidance:

Slide Submission Questions

When are my slides due?

For virtual courses, please mail us your slides to our office or upload them digitally by the case submission deadline. If attending an in-person AIRP course, you may submit them physically to us at the course during the first two weeks.

Where can I find the verification/consent form that my pathologist needs to sign?

After you have completed the Case Data Entry section of the online case submission and have uploaded a pathology report in the Upload Documents section, you will be able to print the verificatio6n/consent form.

You can print the form by clicking PRINT for VERIFICATION/CONSENT FORM in the Case Data Entry section. The form will automatically populate with the information you entered for your case.

Why are blank copies of the verification/consent form not available on your website?

Blank copies are not provided because the form is set up to automatically populate with the information you entered for your case. Therefore, the form for each case is unique. This is precisely the information that requires “verification” by your pathologist.

Can a pathologist other than the one who reported on my case sign the verification/consent form?

Yes. Any pathologist from your institution may sign the verification/consent form.

What is virtual microscopy?

Virtual microscopy is a scanned file type of the entire specimen slide. The file is very large and carried to the course on disc or flash drive. It is at the discretion of the pathologist to send one or more scanned slides.

Can I bring a virtual microscopy disc for my pathological slides instead of the actual glass slides?

Virtual microscopy discs are the preferred format for slide submission. Please submit the virtual microscopy pathology slides on a DVD labeled with your case ID number, accompanied by a print-out of the signed verification/consent form.

You may also bring your virtual microscopy on a flash drive for transfer to an AIRP computer.

My case does not have pathologic slides. What should I do?

In a few unique cases, there may be a reason for not submitting pathology slides. You must email the organ system section chief to request a pathology waiver.

Include your case ID number, the course date you are attending, and the reason your case does not have pathologic slides. You will save a screenshot or snipping tool image of the original email slide waiver in .pdf format under the pathology report section.

I only have JPEG images of the histology. Are these acceptable in place of slides?

JPEG images do not fulfill the pathology requirement. Although JPEG images are required to enhance your case, they are limited in their display of pathologic features.