Tag Archives: Digital pathology/digital imaging/computer-assisted imaging

December 2023—Digital pathology and AI—the push, the potential, the changing questions, the reimbursement, and the caution. All that and more came up when CAP TODAY publisher Bob McGonnagle on Oct. 17 led a conversation online with pathologists and industry representatives.

Is digital pathology on the move? Two who know it well say it is. Esther Abels, a precision medicine and biomedical regulatory health science expert who is CEO of SolarisRTC and former president of the Digital Pathology Association, and Michael Rivers, vice president/lifecycle leader of digital pathology at Roche Tissue Diagnostics, spoke in September with CAP TODAY publisher Bob McGonnagle, who got their take on where things stand.

October 2023—In living up to its promise as a new technology that will revolutionize clinical care through greater ease, speed, and accuracy of diagnosis, digital pathology has been sluggish. While many analysts, starting at least two decades ago, forecasted that digital pathology would elbow aside glass slides for good, that milestone is still far out of reach. As health economist and chief executive officer of the New York City-based digital pathology company Paige, Andy Moye, PhD, puts it bluntly: “In probably 90 to 95 percent of the cases in the U.S., a pathologist still makes the diagnosis of cancer the way they did it back in 1910: by looking at a glass slide under a microscope.” Mark Lloyd, PhD, vice president of pathology for Fujifilm, says he wouldn’t be surprised to hear that perhaps only five percent to 10 percent of hospitals have moved beyond using only glass slides to offer pathologists digital pathology capability. In fact, Dr. Lloyd thinks those percentages are overstated. What is the market share for the clinical use of digital pathology?

July 2023—Digital pathology, the pathology workforce, and the clinical demand for subspecialty expertise were some of what Compass Group lab leaders took on in their June 6 conversation, with CAP TODAY publisher Bob McGonnagle leading the way.

April 2023—At the medical center of the University of Medicine and Pharmacy at Ho Chi Minh City, patients are not screened for bladder cancer using urine cytology because the pathology department does not have the capability for such screening. But that may soon change, thanks to an organization focused on using digital pathology to increase the availability of pathology education resources in developing countries.

March 2023—Assessing cardiac allograft rejection from endomyocardial biopsy​ and assigning a differential diagnosis to cancers of unknown origin have been shown to get a boost from AI-driven computational pathology models. So too has identifying subregions of high diagnostic value on whole slide images.

February 2023—As this year’s guide to anatomic pathology computer systems was taking shape, CAP TODAY publisher Bob McGonnagle met online with representatives of five companies and with John Sinard, MD, PhD, of Yale University School of Medicine. They talked about the cloud, CPT codes, training of pathology informaticians, and artificial intelligence, for which the time frame in pathology is far longer than it’s been portrayed, in Dr. Sinard’s view. “It will start to impact the careers of some of our trainees, but it’s probably a 10- to 20-year time frame before it plays a major role,” he said. The view of Joe Nollar of Xifin: “Speculation that AI will someday replace pathologists is completely overblown,” though it will help to triage cases and mitigate risk. Their full conversation, which took place Dec. 20, 2022, follows.  

January 2023—Respiratory viruses were up in most states when Compass Group members met online Dec. 6 with CAP TODAY publisher Bob McGonnagle, and some were looking to centralize their now decentralized rapid molecular testing. At least one system had already done so. In California, a new law requires fentanyl screening be included in drug screens in all general acute-care hospital lab settings.

Nearly 800 registrants were at the Digital Pathology Association’s Pathology Visions meeting this fall, and 54 companies exhibited. “There was a great vibe at the meeting. People were mingling, collaborative. Digital pathology is picking up,” says DPA president Esther Abels. Her term as president will end this month and Liron Pantanowitz, MD, PhD, MHA, of the University of Michigan, will step in as president on Jan. 1.

July 2022—Good slides in, good images out. Liron Pantanowitz, MD, MHA, explained how to get those good images in a recent webinar on preanalytics quality control in digital pathology, sponsored by Sunquest and made available by the Association for Pathology Informatics.

February 2022—In a survey of the international pathology community on the integration of artificial intelligence into diagnostic pathology practice, 80 percent of the 487 respondents predicted integration within the next five or 10 years.

September 2020—While the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak has led many long-standing companies to zig instead of zag, it caused the computational and digital pathology startup Crosscope to switch gears in the midst of developing its first product.

July 2020—Unveiled in 2018, HistoQC, an open-source quality control tool for digital pathology slides, was an “awakening to a problem” and the kickoff of a conversation, says Andrew Janowczyk, PhD, its main investigator. And while it’s hard to measure the tool’s use because it’s freely available, he says, reception has been strong. “It’s been a pretty good ride,” he says of its first two years.

September 2019—The FDA’s clearance this year of a second digital pathology system for primary diagnosis is likely to lead to lower costs and greater innovation and interoperability, say digital pathology advocates. A multicenter study led the FDA in May to clear Leica Biosystems’ Aperio AT2 DX System for clinical diagnosis in the United States.  

Digital pathology: from education to implementation July 2019—Matthew Hanna, MD, is well aware that not all pathologists embrace the idea of using digital pathology for clinical applications. “I’m very confident it’s a familiarity issue,” says Dr. Hanna, clinical instructor in breast pathology and informatics at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

February 2019—Digital pathology is many things. One thing it’s not is a one-night stand. As laboratories contemplate using digital pathology for primary diagnosis in the wake of the FDA’s approval nearly two years ago, it’s become abundantly clear that while digital pathology might seem to promise easy pleasure, it’s actually as complicated as keeping multiple spouses happy. Think Jacob, Rachel, and Leah. Think “Big Love.”

April 2018—Nearly one year after the FDA cleared the Philips IntelliSite Pathology Solution for primary diagnosis, Philips is reporting worldwide momentum for the adoption of digital pathology.

December 2017—With the FDA having approved whole slide imaging for primary diagnosis this year, one obstacle to full acceptance of digital pathology remains: lack of interoperability. To topple that barrier, the Digital Pathology Association, the CAP through its Digital Pathology Committee, and DICOM Working Group 26 convened in October, during the Pathology Visions conference, the first Connect­athon for digital pathology.

August 2017—The age of FDA-approved whole slide imaging for primary diagnosis has dawned with opportunity for every level of professional who works in the digital pathology environment. It includes not only an expanded professional cachet but also great potential born of collaborative and remote capabilities, and perhaps better patient outcomes as a result.

June 2017—The new FDA-enabled milestone in pathology—approval in April of whole slide imaging for primary diagnosis—allows pathology to dip its toe into the technological revolution that has already transformed other fields. Widespread adoption will take time, training, and money, but it no longer awaits breakthrough approval.

May 2017—When the Food and Drug Administration granted permission to Philips to market its whole slide imaging system for primary diagnosis last month, it was a “big deal” of the highest order. “Yes, this is a very big deal,” says Liron Pantanowitz, MD, a professor of pathology and biomedical informatics at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. “This event will provide the impetus to drive digital pathology forward for clinical use in the U.S., and allow us to catch up with our colleagues around the world who are ahead of us in their digital transformation journey.”