Authors (including presenting author) :
Wong CK (1)
Affiliation :
(1)Department of Clinical Pathology, Tuen Mun Hospital
Introduction :
New development in digital pathology provides excellent supports to tissue-based research, education and clinical diagnosis. It allows data sharing across different applications and facilitates data search, analytics, workflow and reporting. Digital pathology utilizes extensive software services and high performance web-based infrastructure, supporting tissue-based clinical and research applications. Digital pathology with whole slide imaging is a recent advanced technology employed in the anatomical pathology worldwide. It involves the scanning of conventional glass slides into digital slides which aids in both diagnostic, training and research purposes. Whole slide scans can be stored to the cloud-based high performance server cluster with data security measures.
Objectives :
To study the applications of digital pathology in anatomical pathology, aiming at investigating the recent advances for optimizing the quality of pathology service and providing better patient management.
Methodology :
An inductive qualitative study had been performed which involved the literature review of websites based documents and case study reflective notes, etc. Conclusions were then made based on the findings and patterns identified in the study. The method of ‘maximum variation sample’ was used such that the factor of demographic variable affecting the result of study was eliminated.
Result & Outcome :
Results showed that digital pathology utilizing powerful computer interface supported with feature rich viewing software allows digital slide sharing and remote analysis in pathology networks. High throughout image analysis of high volume tissue samples are provided for immunohistochemistry biomarker quantitation in both academic and cluster-wide hospital settings. Other applications of digital pathology include cytology screening, fine needle aspiration cytology evaluation, molecular pathology guidance, autopsy assistance, surgical specimen manipulation and internet-based teleconferencing for real-time consultations. There are different types of digital pathology communications for use in consultation and diagnostic services. The simplest form is static image digital pathology capturing selected digital images and transmitting them to the remote site. Despite the running cost of this method is cheap, it is limited by the disadvantage of having sampling error. The second type of communication is dynamic robotic digital pathology which involves the transmission of real-time image from the robotic microscope. The main advantage is the direct control of received images by the distant operators. Minimal sample errors can be achieved by controlling the image of viewing. Nevertheless, the method suffers from the disadvantage of high running cost. The third method involves the hybrid digital pathology with simultaneous transmission of both static and real-time microscopic images. Anatomical pathology informs the clinical decisions of doctors across the healthcare spectrum. Good quality anatomical pathology results are critical to proper functioning of the entire medical system. The major challenge of anatomical pathologist is to master the new technologies and to incorporate them appropriately into the pathology diagnosis. Timely adoption of new technology reflecting international best practice, such as digital pathology, is vital for providing high quality pathology service.
