Evaluating the use of virtual microscopy in cytology education

•Our findings revealed that there is a significant difference in diagnostic performance (Z = 5.38, P < 0.001) for students when using virtual microscopy platform, relative to light microscopy, in favor of the physical glass slides and microscopes.•SurePath imaged slides’ accuracy was also reviewed as a potential alternative for its cloud storage advantage and found to be just as good, if not better, than the ThinPrep imaged slides (74.3% accuracy in SP compared to 65.7% in TP).•Themes were discerned from the students’ digital slide review logs, to gain insights on the end-user experience using the virtual platform, which can be built upon to improve the future virtual screening experience.•The top three most frequently reported themes from the end-users when screening in virtual platforms were image quality (cited 21 times), lack of ability to fine-focus (cited 12 times), and high learning curve (cited 12 times)