USCAP 2024 Symposium

Dr. Willaim Westra began by outlining the scope of the transition to digital pathology at Mount Sinai Health System, which scans approximately 2 million slides annually. He noted that digital capabilities make collaboration and education easier. “Unlike the past, where we would crowd all of our residents around a multi-headed scope, I now can give conferences system-wide throughout all of those hospitals using the digital pathology platform,” he said. “I would argue that digital pathology, in terms of resident/fellow education, is more than just a tool of convenience. It's becoming a tool almost of obligation for the way it supports the NIH mission towards advancing translational research through bringing up the next generation of pathology residents and fellows. The same concept applies for tumor boards or if a clinician or surgeon has a question about any case regarding pathology. I can just pull up those images and then share with colleagues.”

Sinai Health’s digital pathology platform has also reduced turnaround times. “The digital console is very fast compared to glass slide service,” Westra said. “We've dramatically reduced turnaround time from several days to literally just a few hours.”

The Ohio State University built an off-site histology lab that makes scanned slides available to pathologists in real-time. Dr. Anil Parwani noted that the move to digital did not result in any image degradation and provided new tools.

“We have a lot of tools in the image management system today: viewing tools, zooming, side-by-side, registration and manipulations,” Parwani pointed out. “It has opened more doors than a glass slide would. Once you digitize (a slide) you extend that life of the image. It doesn't fade or get broken or lost.”

He also appreciates how digital pathology aids research. “We have interactive tools for researchers and we’re not confined to one location,” Parwani said. “I'm doing research projects in India, Japan and China because of this technology. Research images are available 24/7, so we're creating data sets and research for successful academic and industry partnerships.”

Andrew Evans is a pathologist at Mackenzie Health, a two-site community hospital in Richmond Hill, Ontario. He emphasized that implementation of digital pathology is institution-specific. “It’s not a one-size-fits-all template,” he said. He added that assessing its worth cannot be based on return-on-investment, but requires assessing what you can do with the technology. Evans said leadership at Mackenzie Health “embraced and adopted the idea that digital pathology is the new paradigm for the specialty. It's a required tool for contemporary practice going forward and an essential platform on which to implement AI and build in other strategies.”

“We are currently leveraging the digital pathology platform to investigate how we could integrate AI into a community practice setting,” he added. “We've had a chance to evaluate a few of these tools but none of them are validated or verified on Mackenzie Health cases. So, we're not actually using them for patient care but that will soon follow.”