Mar 26, 2009 | Digital Pathology, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
Digital Pathology Imaging: Coming Soon to a Pathology Group near You!
Will pathologists soon say “sayonara” to glass slides? Plenty of smart money already bets the answer to that question is “yes”! Every pathologist in the United States and abroad should be watching developments in whole slide imaging and digital pathology systems. That’s because digital pathology imaging is a trend with momentum-and it also has the potential to be disruptive, although probably not in the short term.
One powerful sign that digital imaging in pathology is ready to go mainstream is the take-up of digital imaging solutions and digital pathology systems by leading pathology laboratories in the United States and developed countries across the globe. These are academic and tertiary center pathology labs, along with major private pathology companies. As the pathology profession’s first-movers and early adopters, it is these laboratories which set the pace for the entire profession. Their acceptance and growing use of digital imaging and digital pathology systems can be taken as evidence that the current generation of imaging and informatics technologies perform adequately.
However, there is another powerful force propelling digital imaging forward in anatomic pathology. It is the emergence of molecular assays which incorporate digital images and use either computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) or pattern recognition software to help the pathologist make a precise diagnosis. By design, these molecular tests require the pathologist to work from a digital image of the specimen. At The Dark Report‘s second annual Molecular Summit on the Integration of In Vivo and In Vitro Diagnostics, conducted last February in Philadelphia, examples of these types of emerging assays were abundant. (more…)
Mar 16, 2009 | Digital Pathology, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations
Changes to profession are working their way into the clinical marketplace
Despite rapid advances in many areas of diagnostic services, most pathologists practicing in community hospitals continue to enjoy a familiar daily routine that has varied little over the past decade. That is about to quickly change, if Dark Daily’s assessment of new technologies and new market forces is accurate.
At least four powerful forces are poised to radically alter the daily workflow and activities of surgical pathologists in community practice settings:
- One, Dark Daily predicts that there will be a rapid uptake in clinical practice of new molecular assays for primary diagnosis of a growing number of cancers. Many of these new molecular assays will involve computer-aided diagnosis of the image, or will incorporate pattern recognition features to guide the pathologists to a very precise answer. The net effect of these developments is that surgical pathologists will rely less on the microscope as the primary tool. Rather, more cancer cases will be diagnosed using a combination of standard microscopy and other assays or techniques.
- Two, Dark Daily predicts that revolutionary changes in the histology laboratory will finally address the variability in the quality of specimen processing and preparation-both within a histology laboratory and across other histology laboratories within a region. Key trends here are use of Lean and similar work flow optimization methods in support of histology automation solutions.
- Three, Dark Daily also predicts that these changes in histology will end the reign of “batch” processing of specimens, often using overnight processing methods. Instead, histology laboratories will be organized around single-piece work flow, using rapid processing methods. In turn, that will change the daily routine of pathologists served by the histology laboratory. No longer will they start their day with a tall stack of yesterday’s case referrals and the pressure to work through the cases as early in the day as possible. Instead, rapid histology processing in small batches and single piece work flow will feed same-day case referrals to the pathologist evenly from morning through afternoon.
- Four, Dark Daily further predicts a surprisingly fast take-up of digital imaging and even fully-digital pathology systems by smaller pathology group practices. Generation Y pathologists will be eager advocates of this transition within private practice settings, as much of their medical training relied almost exclusively on digital images.
Pathologists and pathology practice administrators who want to stay ahead of these forceful trends will find insights and answers at the upcoming Executive War College on Lab and Pathology Management, which takes place on April 28-29, 2009 at the Sheraton Hotel in New Orleans. (more…)
