Pathology, the branch of medical science that deals with disease detection, interpretation, and definitive diagnosis, is undergoing a paradigm shift with the advancement of technology. For decades, pathologists have provided diagnoses by examining tissue specimens under a microscope. This process comes with downsides that include innate delays in the workflow and risk involved with the transfer of glass slides across different locations. However, today, digital pathology surmounts the limitations of traditional microscopy and converts the analog microscopic images on glass slides into digital images that can be viewed, managed, and analyzed on a computer screen. It even streamlines reassignment of cases and images either automatically or almost instantly, thus, creating a significant impact on the turnaround times and ROI. “Digital pathology accelerates the diagnosis and treatment of an illness by improving workflow efficiencies and reducing the time taken for research, validation, secondary consults, and tumor board preparations,” begins Lisa-Jean Clifford, COO and chief strategy officer, Gestalt Diagnostics. Leveraging the capability of this dynamic, image-based information environment, Gestalt Diagnostics is transforming the pathology workflow through their enterprise-level software solution—PathFlow. Built upon the foundation of a widely adopted radiology workflow solution, PathFlow is platform- and vendor-agnostic, and hence can be integrated with any scanner, electronic health record (EHR), or laboratory information system (LIS). Once the glass slides are prepared, they can be scanned and the digital images can then be sent to any pathologist or physician for review, annotations, comments and archiving.

“Pathologists experience several challenges with regard to transportation of slides between facilities and time involved in preparing reports; all of these processes are tedious, manual, and time-consuming,” states Clifford.