David Snead on The use of digital pathology in the primary diagnosis of histopathology samples.

Recent developments in digital pathology enable the rapid scanning of microscope slides at high resolution, making the digitisation of histopathology slides for routine diagnosis purposes feasible. An important initial step in the wider adoption of this technology is the establishment of validation data assessing how effective pathologists are using digital workstations in comparison to conventional light microscopes and glass slides when examining cases for primary diagnosis. I will report on the first study sufficiently powered to demonstrate a statistically valid equivalent (i.e. non-inferior) performance of digital pathology (DP) against standard glass slide (GS) microscopy. This study examined a total of 3,017 cases were included, generating 10,138 slides, which when scanned resulted in a digital archive of 2.45 terabytes. As well as demonstrating non-inferiority of digital in comparison to glass slides the study was useful in establishing rules for slide scanning and identifying areas where digital pathology has limitations and needs to be used with caution.
Finally the presentation covers the impact adopting digital pathology will have on diagnostic laboratories, the economics of these changes and where these changes are most likely to benefit patients.