The Daily Scan

FDA Panel to Consider Digital Pathology and Whole Slide Imaging

BIG NEWS: The Dark Daily reports FDA Panel to Consider Digital Pathology and Whole Slide Imaging:

Next week, an FDA committee will consider whether to allow pathologists to use digital pathology systems for primary diagnosis.  Even if the committee does not make a positive recommendation, the timing demonstrates the swift progress in the quality of digital pathology images and the systems that present them to the pathologists. 

Digital pathology imaging systems are slowly replacing microscopes in the nation’s clinical labs.  There is now enough momentum in the market for digital pathology imaging that the FDA’s Hematology and Pathology Devices Panel of the Medical Devices Advisory Committee will meet October 22 and 23 in Gaithersburg, Maryland, to hear from experts in digital imaging. (See agenda)  The FDA review committee may later make recommendations on the public health issues related to the use of digital whole slide imaging systems to replace conventional light microscopy for diagnostic surgical pathology.

I'm going to be presenting, as are many experts and participants in the digital pathology industry.  It is no exaggeration to say this is one of the most pivitol hearings in the history of FDA regulation of Pathology.  Stay tuned for a full report!

Kaiser scores $54M+ in NIH/ARRA grants

HealthImaging reports Kaiser scores $54M+ in NIH/ARRA grants:

Kaiser Permanente has received 22 grants worth more than $54 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA).  The insurer said that much of the grant money will go toward research that will leverage its EHRs.

The largest grant is a $24.85 million Grand Opportunities grant to conduct genotyping on 100,000 Kaiser members who are participating in the Research Program on Genes, Environment and Health (RPGEH).  According to the payor, the genetic information will be llinked to data on participants from RPGEH health surveys, disease registries and Kaiser's EHR database.  This resource could allow researchers to examine genetic and environmental influences on a variety of conditions.

With this kind of spending, EHR is going to happen.  And we'll get a chance to see how much it really helps patients!

Philips brings the digital revolution to the pathology laboratory

In advance of the College of American Pathologists' annual conference, starting today in Washington DC, Philips have announced a digital pathology system.

The Philips system comprises a high-throughput pathology slide scanner and high-capacity image storage and viewing system, plus advanced software for feature recognition and analysis.

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As is already happening with digital radiology, digitisation in the pathology workflow also opens up new ways of working. It could enable pathology labs to organise themselves more efficiently by concentrating activities where they are most appropriate. For example, it would no longer be essential to locate lab technicians and pathologists alongside one another in the same facility. By making themselves more efficient, pathology labs could perform more diagnoses with the same number of pathologists. Moreover, seeking the expert opinion of external specialists could no longer involve physically sending slides to them.

Philips is already working with leading pathology departments to evaluate the benefits of the system in clinical environments. Nevertheless, it still welcomes new partners to develop the system further – particularly in areas such as the development of industry standards for image capture and compression. It is also actively seeking collaborations with companies that specialise in histological stains and staining techniques in order to develop additional image analysis and interpretation software suites.

You might be surprised to hear, but I'm delighted that Philips have entered the market.  They're a great company and will have a high quality offering, and this will help foster adoption of digital pathology worldwide.  At this stage of the market, the more companies making good products, the better; a rising tide lifts all boats.

Digital Pathology makes Cleveland Clinic's Top 10 Medical Innovations for 2010

Woo hoo!  We made the list!

Cleveland Clinic unveils Top 10 Medical Innovations for 2010

For well over a century, pathologists, the medical experts who identify disease through the study of human tissue, did their job by peering through high-powered microscopes at glass slides that held tissue samples. And if a pathologist wanted to share the slide with a colleague, that person had to come to the lab to see. For those at a remote location, the specific slide had to be mailed or else the pathologist hand delivered it.

Thanks to whole-slide digital imaging—a new technology that converts glass slides into digital slides with excellent image quality that can be viewed, managed, stored, streamed over the internet, and analyzed on a computer— all of that has now changed. Computer monitors have now been transformed into virtual microscopes, allowing pathologists to deliver extremely accurate results.

And the accompanying video shows an Aperio ScanScope XT, Spectrum, and ImageScope.  Yay.

PS I remember last year thinking "how cool would it be if we made this list"...

Challenges of achieving meaningful use daunting, yet plausible

HealthImaging has an interesting feature: Challenges of achieving meaningful use daunting, yet plausible:

Achieving meaningful use for EHR systems won’t be easy - but is possible, according to a report published in September by the Computer Science Corporation, “Meaningful Use for Hospitals: The Top Ten Challenges.”

The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) provide an estimated $22 billion dollars for the adoption and use of health IT by Medicare and Medicaid providers over the next ten years. Eligible physicians and hospitals must achieve meaningful use of an EHR to receive financial incentives. Physicians and hospitals not engaging in meaningful use by 2015 will incur penalties to their Medicare reimbursement.

However, with unclear mandates and expectations, meaningful use faces a daunting task of being implemented and standardized nationwide. Undoubtedly, many challenges will arise as the requirements become clearer and divergent practices attempt to converge during the reformation period.

Interesting how "meaningful use" has suddenly become the crucial criterion for EHR.  Clearly incorporating digital pathology into EHR systems would make them much more meaningful, as it would enable patients to seek second opinions themselves...

Glide Health Lands Deal Covering One Million Patients

TechCrunch notes Glide Health Lands Deal Covering One Million Patients:

As the medical community steadily turns towards technology to power online health records, the giants like Microsoft, Google and others are throwing their hats into the digital health records ring.  It’s a growing space and there are many innovations taking place from both large tech companies and smaller startups.  One compelling offering comes from Glide Health, that recently launched desktop and mobile apps which provide a centralized repository for patient records. Glide Health’s web and desktop apps hold patient profiles (which can be created by the patient or doctor) that contain pertinent medical information such as insurance information, family medical history, doctors, past test results, past surgeries and procedures, x-rays and more. It pulls in data from disparate IT Health systems, converts it into a single format, and then synchronizes updates back to the original legacy systems.

Fresh on the heels of its launch, Glide Health already has its first major customer. Today, Glide has announced a fairly significant partnership with Integrated Medical Professionals (IMP), the largest multispecialty group practice in the United States, to implement Glide Health’s mobile and desktop platforms for the practice’s 100 physicians and over one million patients.

No mention of their support for Digital Pathology, but of course they're working on it :)  Seriously these consumer-focused health portals are going to be increasingly important, and one of the reasons is that they facilitate secondary consultation.  For which you need the primary data...

UCSF, other UC med centers, get $10.1M to revamp breast cancer study/care

San Francisco Business Times reports UCSF, other UC med centers, get $10.1M to revamp breast cancer study/care:

The University of California and its five statewide medical centers, led by UC San Francisco Medical Center, is using $10.1 million in new grants to launch a statewide program to revamp the study and care of breast cancer.

UC said earlier this week that the effort, dubbed the Athena Breast Health Network, will involve “designing and testing new approaches to research, technology and health care delivery.” Initially, the so-called large-scale demonstration project will screen and study 150,000 women statewide whose health status will be monitored for decades, according to a Sept. 29 news release.

Wow, sounds like an amazing project.  And a great opportunity for the use of Digital Pathology!