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250 TB of Legacy Pathology, Fully Digital: How a Tier 1 Medical Center Built an Enterprise Digital Pathology Program with Corista

From archived glass to a cloud-based, AI-ready platform, and a model any health system can follow, whatever its size.

A Tier 1 academic medical center in California with more than 800 certified beds has completed a large-scale existing slide migration converting and moving roughly 250 terabytes of legacy slide data onto Corista’s DP3 platform. The program now supports 29 staff pathologists and more than 50 users. It also gives the organization a single, scalable foundation for LIS modernization, AI-assisted diagnostics, and growth across its hospital network.

The challenge: years of glass, a growing archive, and no single view

Like many pathology departments, the medical center kept years of diagnostic history in its glass slide archive and in an existing eSlide Manager repository. That history matters for second opinions, tumor boards, research, and comparing a patient’s new case with prior ones. But it was hard to get to, and it sat outside the clinical workflow.

When the organization came to Corista in 2022, it had three new whole slide scanners from two vendors. It needed a platform that could take in images from both, connect directly to its laboratory information system (LIS), migrate more than 1 million existing slides from a digital archive into the platform, and scale without a large on-premises storage build-out. Integration was further complicated by plans to migrate from PowerPath to Epic Beaker, requiring a truly enterprise-level solution.

What Corista delivered

  • Deep LIS integration: Corista built a robust integration with the center’s PowerPath LIS, so case and slide data flow straight into scanning and sign-out. Pathologists see the right images on the right case without manual matching.
  • Vendor-neutral scanning operations: Leica and Hamamatsu scanners feed one workflow on DP3, so the lab can choose hardware on its own terms rather than being locked into a single vendor.
  • Existing slide migration at scale: About 250 TB of legacy slide data, including the full eSlide Manager repository, was converted and migrated into DP3. Archived cases are now searchable and viewable alongside new work.
  • Cloud storage deployment: A cloud storage architecture holds a large and growing image archive without forcing the hospital to expand its own data center.

Built to grow

Go-live was a starting point, not the finish line. Since launch, the medical center has continued to build on DP3:

  • More scanning capacity: The center has kept adding scanning hardware as digital volume grows, with each new scanner fitting into the same workflow.
  • A smooth LIS transition: This summer the organization retired PowerPath and went live on Epic Beaker. Corista supported the move so digital pathology kept running through the change.
  • AI in the workflow: The Visiopharm integration with DP3 is complete and in clinical operation, and more AI integrations are planned.
  • Network expansion: The center plans to bring two to three system hospitals onto its digital pathology network by the end of 2027, extending subspecialty expertise to sites that may not have it on staff.

What that means for your lab

Few organizations will migrate 250 TB, but the lessons from this program apply to labs of every size, from academic centers to community and rural hospitals:

  • Your archive is an asset: Existing slide migration makes prior cases available for comparison, consults, and research, so the value of digital pathology starts with your history, not just new cases.
  • Start with the scanners you have: A vendor-neutral platform lets you begin with the hardware you own or can afford and add capacity over time.
  • The LIS can change: Your platform shouldn’t have to. Deep, maintained LIS integration protects your investment through system changes like a move to Epic Beaker.
  • Cloud storage lowers the barrier: Smaller hospitals can store and share large image volumes without building and staffing their own data center.
  • Networks bring expertise closer to patients: A connected digital pathology network lets rural and community sites send cases to subspecialty pathologists in hours instead of shipping glass for days.
  • AI is ready when you are: Integrations such as Visiopharm can be added to the same platform as your program matures.

Ready to bring your slides forward?

Whether you’re planning your first scanner, converting an existing archive, or connecting hospitals across a region, Corista can help you design a program that fits your size and grows with you. Contact our team to start the conversation.