Digital Pathology
Digital pathology is an image-based information environment that is enabled by computer technology to allow for the management of information generated from a digital slide. It is enabled in part by virtual microscopy, which is the practice of converting glass slides into digital slides that can be viewed, managed, and analyzed on a computer monitor. With the advent of whole-slide imaging, the field of digital pathology has exploded and is currently regarded as one of the most promising avenues of diagnostic medicine to achieve even better, faster and cheaper diagnosis, prognosis and prediction of cancer and other important diseases.
Digital pathology also holds the promise of interconnecting pathologists around the globe in ways that will advance diagnostic accuracy and improve patient outcomes.
In pathology, trained pathologists look at tissue slides under a microscope. The tissue on those slides may be subjected to staining to highlight structures. When those slides are digitized, they then have the potential to be numerically analyzed using computer algorithms. Algorithms can be used to automate the manual counting of structures, or for classifying the condition of tissue such as is used in grading tumors.
This could reduce human error and improve accuracy of diagnoses. Digital slides are also, by nature, easier to share than physical slides. This increases potential for using data for education and consultations between two or more experts.
In April, the US Food and Drug Administration approved for marketing the Philips IntelliSite Pathology Solution (PIPS), the first whole slide imaging (WSI) system that allows for review and interpretation of digital surgical pathology slides prepared from biopsied tissue. It was the first time the FDA permitted the marketing of a WSI system for these purposes.
Thus the high cost of implementing this technology is slowing adoption of these systems by smaller private pathology groups. It is estimated that around 1,000 pathology labs worldwide own and use digital pathology systems on a regular basis.
Smaller organizations often believe they must engage in full adoption, which means digitizing all cases and every glass slide, then reading all the images on a monitor. Partial adoption is also possible, though, and new technology is expected to allow smaller pathology groups to go digital via a cloud-based pathologist workflow solution.
Momentum Continues for Digital Pathology
CEO SUMMARY: Last month, digital imaging in pathology gained additional momentum with the latest FDA clearance. Aperio Technologies, Inc., now has FDA clearance to market its slide scanning system for reading digital progesterone receptor (PR) slides on a computer monitor. Aperio plans to…
iTunes Business Model For Digital Path Scans
CEO SUMMARY: If BioImagene’s CEO is to be believed, the company is ready to deliver a digital pathology system that is robust and affordable, even in settings with just two or three pathologists. One key to the BioImagene strategy is “per scan” pricing that avoids the need for upfro…
Is Digital Path Imaging Ready for Prime Time?
CEO SUMMARY: Digital pathology imaging systems are finding uses in all phases of drug discovery (discovery, pre-clinical, clinical trials), as well as education, research, and clinical. One hurdle to widespread adoption of fully digitized, whole-slide pathology imaging systems is FDA clea…
Toronto Pathologists Use Whole-Slide Imaging
CEO SUMMARY: It was the “frozen section problem” and productivity issues that led pathologists at the three-hospital University Health Network (UHN) in Toronto to implement a fully-digital pathology system with whole-slide imaging in 2006. Use of digital, whole-slide …
GE, UPMC Create Company for Digital Path Imaging
CEO SUMMARY: It’s a new joint venture with the potential to transform surgical pathology. General Electric Healthcare has extensive experience at supporting physicians’ work flow with digitized imaging systems, plus ample experience with molecular bio-markers. The University of Pittsb…
Digitization of Pathology Is Making Steady Progress
CEO SUMMARY: Pathology digitization incorporates a greater scope of work-changing technologies than telepathology. It incorporates information technology, new diagnostic knowledge, and other engineering innovations to help pathologists move past glass and paper. Existing digital pathology…
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Volume XXXII, No. 6 – April 21, 2025
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