You literally walked right into the world of digital pathology, sandwiched between Aperio and Ventana, when you entered the exhibit hall at USCAP 2011 in San Antonio last week. A shift in the mindset of pathologists could be felt throughout the meeting and left the digital pathology industry energized about what 2011 will bring. No more just looking and talking about digital pathology, pathologists were truly starting to plan and think about how to adapt to their digital future.
The amount of information I gained last week, specifically about digital pathology (and LEAN too), still has my head spinning. If you missed the meeting or did not get as much time as you would have liked in the exhibit hall, then read on and follow my three part series on digital pathology at USCAP 2011.
Part 1: The BIG Players in Digital Pathology
When I say BIG- literally, I mean BIG! To qualify as a BIG player in digital pathology you must have BIG (and very deep) wallets, BIG exhibit booths, BIG scanners, and BIG plans for the future of digital pathology! The BIG players are (in no particular order):
Aperio
You could not miss Aperio, or their giant projector ball! They were one of the first booths you saw when you entered the exhibit hall. Their two big initiatives were the NEW ScanScope AT and Spectrum Healthcare. The ScanScope AT is similar to the XT, but with a 400 slide carousel and a new flat loading method that “pushes and pulls” the glass slide on to the stage. Aperio says the AT has a 25% improvement in scan time with a throughput of 30 slides an hour at 20x.
In addition to the AT, Aperio was showing a sneak preview of their new workflow solution Spectrum Healthcare to a select few. These demonstrations were to gain feedback and impressions of this new product (not yet released). I was fortunate to be one of the select few (Thanks Ole!) to see it. Spectrum Healthcare has a nice clean look, and is designed to provide an intuitive user experience based on the workflow of key clinical applications.
Ventana
“Ventana Digital Pathology Powered by Bioimagene” is the new tag line for the duo. Although the well known Bioimagene brand was not present in the Ventana booth, their iScan Coreo Au scanner, Virtuoso data management software, and whole slide images were. A great example of integration of the two brands were large touch screen displays throughout the booth that showcased whole slide images of new antibodys, like ERG for prostate. It is clear that Ventana has a plan and strategy for digital pathology, and is working hard to fully integrate the Bioimagene team and products into their portfolio.
Omnyx
There were lots of familiar and new faces in the Omnyx booth! Omnyx has been hiring (and is still hiring) a lot of people to support the launch of their digital pathology solutions, currently for research use only. Omnyx showcased new technology with their VL120 scanner and a new web-enabled viewer for mobile devices (think iPad and laptops) for remote access to their pathologist workstation solution. The VL120 has the same components as the VL4 but with a flat-bed load and scan system. There are six stackable trays that each hold 20 slides and can be placed in the VL120. The VL120 will not be available until Q4 2011.
Olympus
Olympus had an very impressive booth fully equipped with a surgical suite, new microscopes, consumer cameras, and their full digital pathology product line. 
The goal was to make pathologists aware that they are more than a microscope provider, they are a healthcare company. I imagine it worked! You couldn’t help but be curious about the surgical suite and the large array of products on display. Their DP product line included the VS110 with fluor and 100 slide autoloader; The NanoZoomer RS 2.0 with new fluorescence components, a Visiopharm image analysis workstation featuring HER2-Connect, and their new VS800 scanner. The VS800 was impossible to miss with it’s large footprint and blue panel. It has capacity for 300 slides, a custom designed objective, simultaneous parallel slide loading and unloading, real-time auto focus which eliminates the need to create a focal map, and brand new software to run the scanner and manage the data.
Leica Microsystems
Leica’s new tagline is “Total Digital Pathology” designed to create a similar message to their “Total Histology” solutions. Although Leica was not showcasing any new digital pathology technology, they were demonstrating their total solution with the SCN400, Ariol for clinical breast panel analysis, and SlidePath software to support the data management of either the SCN400 or Ariol scanned slides. Both Genetix (acquired by Danaher in March 2010) and SlidePath (acquired by Genetix in May 2009) are now represented as an integrated part of Leica Microsystems, and their “Total Digital Pathology” solutions.
Philips
Philips demonstrated their high throughput (300 slides) scanner, Pathology PACS workflow software, and a new integrated DAKO HER2 algorithm. Their system is designed for the “bench” with a simple, intuitive touch screen, large bright lights indicating the scanning process (to be monitored from across the lab), and the batch can be interrupted to pull out finished slides and to load new ones. Within the PACS software is the Dako algorithm for the Herceptest (HER2). This was one of my favorite features at Philips. Based on the slide barcode the software knows what the stain is and “automatically” applies the algorithm to the slide and generates the score. 
The user (aka pathologist) only has to delineate an area of interest(s). The algorithm is calibrated to the stain and is very, very easy to use! Further image analysis initiatives by Philips include integration with Definiens for specific algorithms; however, Philips will have an open architecture for image analysis. The entire Philips solution is available today but for research use only. Clinical trials are set to begin at three customer sites in Q2.
Special thanks to Ole at Aperio and his blog for a few of my pictures, and stay tuned for tomorrow’s post- USCAP Part 2: Innovation Trends in Digital Pathology.
