Digital Pathology Blog

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Posted by Keith Kaplan, MD, Chief Medical Officer 07/11/2023

Pathology in the Remote Work Era: Challenges and Opportunities

 

The public health events of the past few years changed our society as most of us knew it. Downtown commercial office space in our cities remains widely available. Even the sprawling suburban campuses around those large cities designed to entice workers to work closer to home for work-life balance are now being sold at a fraction of what those properties were valued at just several years ago. As a railfan, I know that ridership on commuter trains remains significantly below pre-March 2020 levels.

From baby boomers to millennials, folks are working remotely. This is not entirely new to some verticals, but for many industries and markets, it is. A 4-day office work week with a remote Friday or Monday was well-established in the past. After 9/11, many large companies with operations in large urban areas established virtual private networks should the need for them arise in our future. Insurance, retail, sales and marketing, financial houses, consultants and the like had many of the necessary components in place in March 2020 for this transition.

Topics: Digital Pathology, Telepathology, Tumor Boards

Posted by Robin Weisburger 03/07/2023

Digital Pathology Communication without the Keyboard – Real-time Voice Becomes an Option

Anatomic Pathology has been experiencing a major paradigm shift over the past several years as digital technology provides new ways of performing the daily work. Changes in workflow are affecting all aspects of pathology, whether clinical, research or education.

The early years of whole-slide-scanning offered academic institutions a way to provide teaching sets, resident collections and publication images without requiring technical staff to perform additional recuts, staining procedures and handling of blocks and slides. While there was indeed clinical utilization of telepathology techniques as far back as 19681, widespread use was limited. Over time, however, the use of telepathology became a way to perform intra-operative consultations, share cases, collaborate and seek clinical opinions from colleagues and outside experts.

Topics: Digital Pathology, Telemedicine, Pathology, digital imaging, Telepathology

Posted by Keith Kaplan, MD, Chief Medical Officer 09/13/2022

Hunting for a Pathologist

A radiologist, an internist, a surgeon and a pathologist go duck hunting. The radiologist is up first and a flock of ducks fly overhead. He raises his shotgun but does not shoot. The surgeon asked him why he didn’t shoot to which the radiologist replied, “They had the outline of ducks, their contrast looked like ducks, but I wasn’t sure they were ducks.” The internist is up next. When the next flock flies overhead, he raises his shotgun in the air but does not shoot. The surgeon, getting irate at what is happening, asked the internist why he did not shoot to which the internist replied, “They looked like ducks and quacked like ducks, but I wasn’t sure they were ducks.”

Topics: Digital Pathology, Radiology, HCR, Telepathology, Management

Posted by Keith Kaplan, MD, Chief Medical Officer 03/31/2020

The Time for Telepathology is Now

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.

Topics: Telepathology

Posted by Robin Weisburger 11/21/2019

Tele-consultation: Expert Collaboration Any Time, Any Place

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.

Topics: Telepathology

Posted by Dr. Keith Kaplan and Liz Wingard 07/31/2014

Is Telepathology Poised for a Giant Leap Forward?

Current technologies can enable real time access to expert pathology specialists for expert case review and are particularly valuable for patients in areas where specialists are in short supply. But other barriers to widespread adoption of these technologies remain. One of the key issues that must be addressed to spur that adoption is remote licensing for specialists.  

Topics: Digital Pathology, Telemedicine, Telepathology