After months in the planning, our cellular pathology department launched a new digital pathology system last week, as part of a national pathology collaborative involving all our regional Trusts.

Digital Pathology is the process of digitising glass slides using an image scanner, so that images can be viewed on a computer. Slides containing samples requiring investigation are placed on a digital slide scanner, which then produces a digital image of the slide. 

Cellular Pathology Service Manager, Michelle McNamara, said: “There is the potential for digital pathology to help reporting of cases, improving patient care as we can share the images electronically with other clinicians for MDT meetings, second opinions and educational purposes.

“The scanned slides will also enable artificial intelligence to develop and train computers to assist in providing a diagnosis in the future.

“As we’ve only just moved to the new system, there will be a delay to the workflow in the short-term whilst training and validation is carried out by pathologists and biomedical scientists. We don’t expect an impact on the current seven-day turnaround times.”

Clinical Director for Pathology, Dr Anu Rajgopal, said: "This is a real milestone, and it wouldn't have been possible without the team's hard work on the planning and delivery. Huge thanks also to Project Manager, Takis Kalogeropoulos, who has kept us all on track." Takis is pictured below with Specialist Biomedical Scientist Katy Bruffell, Senior Specialist Biomedical Scientist Madeep Dhesi and Advanced Practitioner, Yen Lee.