Virtual Program: Digital Pathology and the Histology Laboratory: Productivity and Quality Considerations

Course overview

The adoption of digital pathology is changing the field of pathology, yet implementation of clinical grade digital pathology is lagging in many institutions because of infrastructure needs for seamless integration in the histology laboratory. These include added dedicated space requirements, trained staff, IT support and modifications of current workflows. Our institution is an early adopter with annual scan volumes of 1.4 million slides. Scanning is performed on multiple platforms, with clinical grade operations that started in 2020 with scanners placed in the histology laboratory. In the last several years, there were multiple studies that aimed at improving the quality of operations and the process productivity. One of the outcomes was the design and construction on a new digital scan room that is separated from the histology laboratory, where all slide digitization steps, including image QC processes take place. The talk will describe the modified design of the digital scan operations and highlight the essential infrastructure needs that were identified, focusing on the solutions that were implemented to reduce turnaround times and maintain quality operations in a large scale histology laboratory. These can serve as a blueprint for other laboratories that are in early stages of their digital pathology journey.