Digital & Computational Pathology - Director of Pathology and Laboratory Services, U.S. Community Hospital

A Director of Pathology and Laboratory Services at a US Community Hospital discusses the current use of digital pathology in their institution. They mention that they are in the early stages of utilizing AI and digital pathology but hope to expand its use in the next six months, whereas other hospitals in their network have adopted digital pathology to a greater extent. Digital pathology is currently used for tumor boards, frozen section consultations, and HER2 markings for breast cancers. The institution partially sends work out to their core laboratory for scanning slides due to a lack of an in-house scanner. The key stakeholders driving digital pathology adoption are the pathology department, managing partners, and the oncology department. The unique value of digital pathology is increased efficiency in workload handling and consulting with subspecialty pathologists without physical slides. The interviewee estimates that they currently use digital pathology on around 2000 slides and expects that number to triple in the next five years. Patients have specifically requested analysis with digital pathology, particularly in breast and prostate cancers. The stakeholder’s institution has been in talks with various companies for scanners, AI tools, and data storage. Looking ahead, the stakeholder expects basic research to increase and a change in the breakdown of routine clinical diagnosis. They anticipate an increase in slide archiving, a decrease in therapy selection, and a potential decrease in teleconsultations. Oncology is the primary focus for digital pathology, with teleconsultations being the most useful application. Breast cancer, colorectal cancer, and gastric cancer are seen as the most important indications. Lastly, the stakeholder believes that AI biomarkers are the future and views education and changes in technology as necessary for broader implementation.