Digital Pathology Blog

Much of the excitement related to digital pathology comes from the ability to rapidly move cases from one place to another. Remote access from home, speedy consultations, rapid review of archival material, and access to cases for clinical conferences are just a few of the benefits that accrue from moving from glass slide analog to a digital slide environment. All of these workflows can be accomplished with glass slides but require the presence of the physical case material. With digitization the need for the physical case is negated which leads to the obvious advantages that slides need not ever be “pulled” from the files, and multiple individuals can view the same case at the same time – think about slides traveling to conferences or for consultation which then are needed immediately for clinical care or quality assurance activities. Clearly the digital pathology laboratory facilitates these processes and makes them more efficient (and safe).

Surgical pathology is increasingly becoming more based in molecular diagnoses rather than morphologic diagnoses. For 150 years, morphology has been an accurate predictor of clinical behavior with standardized criteria for both histological grading and pathologic staging of tumors. While there are certainly “gray areas” in morphology and classification of disease, a traditional approach of classifying tumors based on location, gross pathologic findings and histologic findings combined with immunohistochemistry, over the past 30 years, has served our patients well in terms of classifying tumors for appropriate therapy and management.

My grandfather, who was self-employed, made a living as a glazier and drove a cab in the winter when he couldn’t hang 10-foot panes of glass 100 stories above the city if it was too windy. The jobs required him to be aware of his surroundings constantly, whether high above the city putting glass on a skyscraper or running the one-way streets around the downtown Loop.

Corista, an integrated pathology solutions leader, has received from the USPTO a Patent Grant for the Virtual Slide Stage (VSS). The VSS is an interface device that greatly improves the ergonomic efficiency of digital slide viewing for pathologists. Use of the device should  ease the path to greater adoption of digital pathology platforms, via mitigation of what is now a laborious and physically tiring process when using currently available technology.

Telepathology, the ability to view remote pathology images, and more specifically, the technology to allow this to happen, has been available for more than 50 years. 

In the past several weeks we have all seen or been directly impacted by a worldwide pandemic.

Nearly 1/3 of the world’s population is currently on “lockdown”, “shelter in place”, “stay at home” or other similar orders from local, state and national authorities in respective parts of the world. My parents told me about when the city swimming pools had to be closed over concern of poliomyelitis, but few of us have experienced anything like this before. Epidemiologists and sociologists will have plenty to study for the next decade and break down.

Digital pathology continues to gain momentum and is becoming­ more commonplace in pathology laboratories around the world. The list of compelling reasons to move to a digital pathology platform grows longer every day. A single image of a critical specimen can potentially aid in a patient’s diagnosis, help determine their course of treatment, play a role in research and help educate the next generation of practitioners.

But at its core, moving to a digital pathology platform facilitates the sharing of pathology cases and images among colleagues and teams whose networks are expanding every day.

Yogi Berra, the Hall of Fame New York Yankees catcher has famously said “It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future”.

The Jetsons had us believing that by 2020 we would have instant food, video phones and flying cars. Two out of three isn’t bad. So far. Some innovative folks are working on drone-like vehicles that can sustain human flight. Let’s see what happens this year with that.

Ten years ago, digital pathology was leaving infancy and becoming a toddler, learning to walk and run and read and write and communicate. The notion that slide images could be viewed from anywhere, anytime, was still a novel idea, not so much from a technological perspective, but rather from a professional one.

Pathologists have long consulted with their colleagues on difficult cases, and today, with their decreasing numbers and the increase in cancer cases world-wide, the ability to collaborate with colleagues at an international level is key to ensuring patients have access to the best diagnostic expertise available no matter where they are located.

Many large medical centers offer pathology consultation services throughout the US and international communities. In addition to formal consult cases, many pathologists share insights with their colleagues in remote locations, benefitting patients as well as the pathologists who learn from each other in these collaborations.

The key to unlocking the broad benefits of digital pathology, including more efficient use of resources, easy access to colleagues & experts, faster clinical workflows — depends on having an image management system providing broad access to every image in the repository for users to view and share.