Step aside, glass slides: Digital pathology opens up a whole new world of possibilities in diagnosis, prognosis, and prediction of diseases, which is only furthered by the use of AI and Machine Learning. In our information channel, we have assembled some of the most exciting applications for digital pathology.
We recently had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Peter Riegman from Erasmus University. Dr. Riegman is a Molecular Biologist and head of the Erasmus MC Tissue Bank. As an early adopter of digital pathology, Dr. Riegman purchased his first Hamamatsu Photonics whole slide scanner in 2005. It was a NanoZoomer HT, one of Hamamatsu’s very first production units, and it is still in daily use at…
Specialist biorepositories are helping advance personalised medicine by supporting the availability of human tissue for research using digital pathology techniques. The pivotal role of the Glasgow Tissue Research Facility (GTRF) in making tissue available to shape new therapies and treatments was outlined in a presentation to the online “Transforming Digital Pathology – Integrating AI to Move…
Royal Philips and Ibex Medical Analytics announced a strategic collaboration to jointly promote their digital pathology and AI solutions to hospitals, health networks and pathology labs worldwide. The combination of Philips digital pathology solution (Philips IntelliSite Pathology Solution) and Ibex’s Galen AI-powered cancer diagnostics platform, currently in clinical use in Europe and the…
Experts from Sweden, Finland and Kenya are using digital microscopy combined with Artificial Intelligence (AI) to deliver a rapid and effective cervical screening service to rural locations in Kenya. The project sees AI and digital diagnostics bridge the gap between low-resource settings and the availability of centralised AI-enhanced expertise and pathology services, located in larger cities in…
"Given the rapid transition towards digitisation, digital pathology is now unquestionably the future", reports pathologist Dr Talat Zehra from Pakistan. "However, some pathologists, particularly in underdeveloped countries, are still reluctant to accept its place in their labs. Among their many reasons, some feel that histopathology is a very complex and subjective field and…
Medical imaging IT and cybersecurity company Sectra has received an order for its digital pathology solution from Amsterdam UMC in the Netherlands. This follows a recently announced radiology imaging contract. With radiology and pathology in one joint solution, Amsterdam UMC will be able to conveniently share images and information between the two medical specialties, enabling efficient…
Telepathology remains number one application for digital pathology, according to expert Professor Liron Pantanowitz, Professor of Pathology and Director of Anatomical Pathology at the University of Michigan. Speaking at the ‘7th Digital Pathology and AI Congress: Europe’, Pantanowitz outlined advances in telepathology, and its enabling access to broader expertise, image sharing and rapid…
A new generation of tissue microarrays are delivering more efficient and time-effective solutions to answering complex clinical and scientific questions. Sitting at the core of this new approach is digital pathology, allowing specific and targeted analysis of small areas of tissue.
Predicting cancer outcome could help with a clinical decision regarding a patient’s treatment. In his keynote speech during the online ‘7th Digital Pathology and AI Congress: Europe’, Johan Lundin, Research Director at the Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM) at the University of Helsinki and Professor of Medical Technology at Karolinska Institute, discussed ‘Outcome and…
A deep learning model to predict RNA-Seq expression of tumours from whole slide images was among the industry innovations outlined at the 7th Digital Pathology and AI Congress for Europe. Created by French-American start-up Owkin, the detail of how the company’s HE2RNA model provides virtual spatialization of gene expression was detailed to online delegates by senior translational scientist…
It is a simple image of two desks in a hospital pathology department, taken a matter of months apart. But there can be few more vivid images that illustrate the changing world of pathology as the specialty forges ahead into the digital era. The image was taken by Dr Solène-Florence Kammerer-Jacquet during the transition towards digital pathology at Rennes University Hospital in France in the…
The advent of digital pathology is offering a unique opportunity to develop computerized image analysis methods to diagnose disease and predict outcomes for cancer patients from histopathology tissue sections. Such advances can help predict risk of recurrence, disease aggressiveness and long-term survival, according to a leading expert in the field, Professor Anant Madabhushi from Case Western…
Digitisation offers great opportunities in pathology to work more efficiently and faster. Used correctly, it reduces the workload for both pathologists and laboratory staff. Patients receive their findings faster. The prerequisite is a grossing table that seamlessly integrates the digital systems into the work process.
Experts have identified two distinct immunological and cellular profiles in the lungs of Covid-19 patients which they believe could help define treatment pathways. From some of the earliest Covid-19 autopsies conducted in Europe, Swiss-based researchers have performed integrative digital pathology and transcriptomic analyses of lung tissues of 16 coronavirus patients who died from respiratory…
International medical imaging IT and cybersecurity company Sectra has signed a digital pathology contract with the Norwegian healthcare region Helse Vest RHF. The healthcare region already uses Sectra’s enterprise imaging solution, which will now include digital pathology. The region-wide solution allows Helse Vest to share resources among healthcare providers, and using the same system for…
Xyall BV, a medtech innovator in molecular pathology, has entered into a multi-year, strategic partnership with Motic, a world leader in microscopy and digital pathology systems. Their goal is to develop an automated, high-precision table-top tumour tissue dissection solution for hospital-based molecular pathology laboratories.
The anatomical pathologist faces a crisis. Public and private labs suffer increasing caseloads, whilst pathologist numbers diminish for various reasons, including greater cancer prevalence associated with aging populations as well as improved cancer screening programs. Precision medicine typically involves more genetic testing and extensive use of immunohistochemistry to classify cancer and…
Spatial analytics offers greater clarity in the assessment of tumours beyond routine microscopic analysis. High-capacity digital image analysis enables new methods of spatial statistics to extract features not immediately distinguishable by visual inspection. These subvisual features reflect complex properties, such as intratumour heterogeneity and have the additional benefit that they can target…
As Artificial Intelligence continues to impact on the development of digital pathology, potential users are still slow to implement key enabling technologies to harness the benefits, according to Dr David McClintock, who will detail critical steps for pathology departments to transition practice from glass (analogue) to digital (whole slide imaging) and embrace AI, to the 6th Digital Pathology…
New techniques of infrared-based technology are showing strong potential for cost-effective tissue analysis. Peter Gardner, Professor of Analytical and Biomedical Spectroscopy at the University of Manchester, outlined how hyperspectral imaging coupled with sophisticated computer algorithms can identify and grade cancerous tissue, as well as offer an indication of prognosis. The technique, he…
