Pathologists May Want to Re-think Their Medical Laboratory’s Use of Digital Pathology
Pathology informaticist points out that not every slide in a patient’s case may need to be scanned and archived by a digital pathology system
Is digital pathology ready for prime time in the specialty of anatomic pathology? Many proponents of digital pathology would say “yes,” and the pathology laboratories now using digital pathology systems report significant benefits. But there are pathologists who argue that this is still a developing technology.
Like any new technology in clinical laboratory medicine and healthcare, digital pathology must demonstrate the right combination of cost-to-acquire, speed-in-use, and added-clinical-value, if it is to gain wide acceptance by pathologists. At the same time, “going digital” has transformed radiology, for example, and this example is often cited by boosters of digital pathology systems.
