Subscribe in a reader
Interested to learn how to make money with digital pathology? Then attend my presentation at the inaugural Pathology Institute 2012 presented by G2 Intelligence and Laboratory Economics. The conference is titled “Pathology Under Attack! Practice Models and Business Strategies for a New Era,” held at the beautiful Westin Beach Resort & Spa in Fort Lauderdale, FL February 9-10, 2012.
Jondavid Klipp, President and Publisher of Laboratory Economics, kindly invited me to speak on this exciting topic and provide “How To” information on how to make money with digital pathology. Here is my session overview:
Making Money from Digital Pathology: Tips for Financial Success Now that the novelty of digital pathology has worn off, pathologists are coming to understand that installing a digital pathology system has some important competitive advantages for their practices but requires a significant investment. So what should pathology practices do? This presentation will explore key financial issues relating to digital pathology including how to create a realistic and achievable business plan with a return on investment strategy. Learning Objectives: Identify ways to be financially successful with digital pathology in your practice Create a foundation within your laboratory for financial success Learn how to build a business case for digital pathology
Making Money from Digital Pathology: Tips for Financial Success
At Pathology Institute 2012, you’ll learn from — and network with — physicians, lab executives, and other pathology leaders as you explore key topics focused on identifying these new growth opportunities and strategies that are essential to strengthening your private practice or pathology organization in a revamped health care system where patient care is integrated and vallue is rewarded over volume: Hear powerful case studies from the nation’s largest independent pathology labs See how some pathology groups have maintained control of the professional component at in-office labs Learn how to construct more equitable and innovative business relationships with your hospital/health systems Get tips for success for integrating digital pathology into your practice Gain the knowledge needed to develop a professional sales and marketing team Learn how to expand your practice with molecular diagnostics Prepare for the new and expanded role that pathologists can play under health care reform Gain insight into the future of pathology
Digital Pathology is innovation. Digital Pathology make changes to something established (ie. pathology) by introducing new methods, ideas, and products. At USCAP last week there were examples all over the exhibit hall of digital pathology being used with other types of innovation including mobile devices, cloud computing, Software As A Service (SAAS), and methods to improve the pathologists workstation experience.
iPads, iPads, and more iPads!
Nikon Live Remote Viewing
I recently blogged about the iPad trend in healthcare (see post iPad Deployment In Healthcare to Reach 70% In 2011). This trend was reinforced by the number of iPads in use at USCAP. The Information Week article stated that 1/3rd of the 950 respondents listed lab order visualization and results, clinical decision support, and medical image viewing applications as “top priorities” for the use of the iPad in healthcare. All great reasons for digital pathology too!
New Olympus VS800 viewer on an iPad
At USCAP Nikon demonstrated live image sharing (aka telepathology) on an iPad with their digital site camera system, Aperio was showing the mobile site of the Juan Rosai Collection on one, Aurora’s mScope really was “anytime, anywhere” on an iPad, and Olympus was demonstrating the new VS800 software on an iPad too!
WSI’s & more in the Cloud
Aurora's mScope
Software (and/or Storage) As A Service (SAAS) are catching on to help overcome the IT barriers of digital pathology. I blogged on the storage element of this over a year ago (see post SAAS- Cloud 9 For Digital Pathology?) and firmly believe that SAAS has it’s place in healthcare and for digital pathology. At USCAP, several digital pathology providers were showing examples of SAAS with support for cloud based storage and secure web-enabled software solutions to ease the strain on IT. Aurora is “building communication networks” and overcoming IT barriers through their SAAS model; Aperio’s SecondSlide & Ventana’sPathXchange are cloud based; Apollo launched a collaboration with Hitachi to offer their Enterprise Patient Media Manager in the cloud, and Mikroscan offers a cloud based solution through a collaboration with Simagis. Why is this becoming more popular? SAAS solutions are accessible from anywhere with an internet connection, do not require installation on a local server or client, can be up and running quickly, and can be rapidly scaled as needed. Another example of SAAS is as an adjunct to a client-based solution. Omnyx developed a web-enabled version of their pathology workstation viewer to work with their client based Pathology workstation software. This will give the pathologist access to cases remotely (home, vacation, etc) and allow for safe, secure sharing of slides outside the hospital network for consultations.
The Pathologist Workstation
The Pathologists workstation experience has become a hot spot of innovation. Barco (see post Diagnostic Color Displays for Digital Pathology) was beta testing software that could improve the “viewing experience” and provide the speed, image quality, and intuitive interaction needed to diagnosis off of a WSI. It was amazing, and they were only using simple input devices bought at Best Buy. The Diagnostic Intelligence and Health Information Technology (DIHIT), a department of CAP STS, were again advocating for and demonstrating their prototype of a pathology diagnostic workstation. Also a few digital pathology manufacturers, like Aperio and 3DHistech, were showing new and/or compatible input devices.
A beta tester at Barco trying out the speed and ease of viewing
Aperio's Innovation Station w/Compatible Input Devices
3DHistech "Microscope like" Input Device
Digital pathology continues to be at the forefront of innovation. It was wonderful to see so many digital pathology solutions leveraging other key innovations!
Look for my final post on Monday, USCAP Part 3: Breaking Down The Barriers Of Digital Pathology.
The United States & Canadian Association of Pathology (USCAP) annual meeting, the first big pathology meeting of the year, is set to kick off in San Antonio TX and celebrate its’ 100th year this weekend. The topic of the meeting is “Education & Innovation For The Next 100 Years” and will feature lots of information on digital pathology.
Over the past three years USCAP has really become a hot spot for digital pathology companies to make a statement; the exhibit booths just get bigger and bigger! In my summary of USCAP last year I blogged about how there were sixteen companies who represented digital pathology products (see post: All Aboard! The Digital Pathology Bandwagon); this year will be even more impressive- just wait and see!
USCAP ’11 Digital Pathology Highlights
I will of course be there and welcome the opportunity to meet and greet with any of my blog readers or anyone interested in learning more about Digital Pathology Consultants. Send me an email if you would like to set up a time to meet and/or follow me on twitter during the meeting at DPConsultant and look for tweets with #USCAP11.
On October 24-27, 2010 Pathology Visions, the annual meeting of the Digital Pathology Association, was hosted in San Diego, CA. It was the first time I have ever attended Pathology Visions and I was very impressed with the turnout of over 400 attendees. It’s so wonderful to see our community grow and develop every year. It was a wonderful few days to network with colleagues and learn from leaders in our industry. Sessions ran concurrently, and I focused on the clinical and IT presentations. Unfortunately I could not attend them all, but here is my “Top 10 List” (in no specific order) of favorite presentations that I was able to attended.
Thanks to everyone who attended, all the exhibitors, and the DPA for putting on a wonderful meeting. I look forward to Pathology Visions 2011!
Patients do not understand the importance of a pathologist in the diagnosis of their disease. They also have no idea about digital pathology. But that could all change with a simple, powerful marketing campaign by GE’s Healthymagination. Can you imagine it? I can, and I have been for years. A Healthymagination commercial would bring attention, good attention to the practice of pathology.
Although no commercial has aired, it has been a busy week for GE in the world of pathology. On October 22nd GE announced the purchase of Clarient in a $587 million deal to accelerate GE Healthcare’s ability to predict and diagnose diseases; and yesterday GE healthcare’s joint venture with UPMC, Omnyx, announced the start of clinical trials for their digital pathology solutions. Although Omnyx was not involved in the purchase of Clarient, it makes sense that they will come together to further GE Healthcare’s $6 billion healthymagination initiative to improve cost, quality, and access in healthcare; or in our world- pathology.
In addition, GE and Omnyx executives spent the past few days promoting their innovation and advancements at two conferences in San Diego, CA- Pathology Visions and TEDMED. At TEDMED Mike Barber, GE’s VP of Healthymagination, gave an 18 minute power presentation which included digital pathology. Mr. Barber was quoted,
I don’t say this lightly – while digitization may seem like a relatively simple change in today’s tricked-out techno world, it’s a revolutionary step in pathology that may lead to the transformation of the practice, and the evolution of our understanding of cell biology.”
Digital pathology is no longer a new topic in pathology. However, it needs to become a new topic in healthcare and with patients. So while we wait for a Healthymagination commercial let’s start to spread the word of our amazing future to anyone who will listen.
Just like the Olympics, multiple gold medals were given out at the first annual European Scanner Contest. The gold medals went to Leica, Olympus, & 3DHistech!
In a previous post, “Going For The Gold! A Digital Pathology Olympics” I discussed how on May 25th-26th the first contest was held with six companies choosing to participate. The participants had the option of competing in up to three disciplines with a maximum of two scanners.
The disciplines were:
The following awards were presented at the 10th Annual European Congress on Virtual Microscopy in Vilnius, Lithuania July 1-3, 2010, based on specific requirements and evaluation rules.
Congratulations to the winning companies and their instruments, and I look forward to future contests and encourage more companies in our industry to participate. For additional information, download the following powerpoint presentation about the contest and an overall summary of results.
I blogged yesterday about a digital pathology contest in “Going For The Gold! A Digital Pathology Olympics” hosted by the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) in collaboration with the Telepathology Network in Europe (EURO-TELEPATH). In follow up to that post, I would like to announce the Olympians are:
The list of contestants is an interesting mix of known companies and new companies. However, I was surprised to find out that some well known companies, like Aperio and Bioimagene are not participating. The results will be published at the 10th Annual European Congress on Virtual Microscopy in Vilnius, Lithuania July 1-3, 2010. Once again, best of luck to all participants and I look forward to seeing the results!
Every digital pathology company says, “We’re the fastest and have the best image quality!” But next week that statement will be put to the test at the first ever scanner contest for digital pathology on May 25-26, 2010 in Berlin, Germany.
The European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) in collaboration with the Telepathology Network in Europe (EURO-TELEPATH) will host the contest. Currently there are six companies signed up to participate, and they can provide up to two scanners of an identical or different type. The contest room will allow each company privacy, and there will be a referee available during the contest days. The glass slides will be provided by the organizing committee and companies can also choose to participate in all or some of the evaluation parameters. The evaluation parameters will include:
If a company runs into technical problems which cannot be fixed in time, there will be another chance to scan parallel to the running conference for the German Society of Pathology meeting being held May 27th-30th.
Preliminary results for the scanner contest will be presented during the German Society of Pathology meeting, and additional results will follow after the meeting and contest. Companies will be able to decide which results should be part of the contest and which should not, and they can contribute comments. Also, the organizers are working to make a web server available with the scanned test slides and each manufacturers viewer that will be available till the next contest for anyone to see and use.
Overall, I think this is a great idea and applaud the companies who have signed up to take the challenge. The reward for the company who takes the GOLD is to be able to say “We are the fastest and have the best image quality” and most importantly, be able to back that statement up. I look forward to seeing the results and wish all companies the best of luck! To learn more about this contest and the COST working group meeting, click here.
Five years ago at the United States and Canadian Association of Pathology (USCAP) annual meeting, I was working for one of two slide scanner manufacturers exhibiting in a small booth trying to gain exposure and sell systems. A few years later, there were four or five companies, and this year there were SIXTEEN companies exhibiting digital pathology hardware and/or software solutions. For the small group of people who have been in this industry for a long time, it’s amazing to see how far the field has evolved. Here are a few of my digital pathology highlights from USCAP ’10.
A Step Forward
WG-26 met on March 20th to finalize Supplement 145, Whole Slide Imaging for Pathology, for submission to WG-6 who coordinates all changes to DICOM. On March 25th, WG-6 approved the supplement, and it will go out to letter ballot within the next two weeks for a 49 day voting period. Assuming a successful outcome, DICOM for whole slide images will be finalize this summer. Many thanks to WG-26 for all of their hard work over the past five years as this standard will improve data management, interoperability, and workflow within pathology.
The Bandwagon
Several new companies were at USCAP this year offering digital pathology solutions including Leica, Philips, Motic, CRi and MikroScan Technologies. Laboratory Information Systems (LIS) and middleware companies were highlighting integration with digital pathology companies increasing interoperability for pathology departments. In addition, numerous reference and contract laboratories were demonstrating their use of digital pathology to stay competitive and allow earlier and flexible access to images and their data. Lastly, current market leaders Aperio, Bioimagene, Olympus, and 3DHistech were demonstrating impressive portfolios of hardware, software, and workflow solutions in their large, expanded booths.
Diagnostic Displays
If you visited the exhibit hall and met with any digital pathology companies, likely you were looking at whole slide images on a Barco diagnostic display. I recently posted about diagnostic displays, and how they could play a key role in the future of digital pathology, and it was nice to see the industry support and response to diagnostic displays.
Whether it was during sessions, reviewing posters, walking the exhibit hall, or in conversations with colleagues; digital pathology was definitely a hot topic. With all this excitement and advancement I cannot wait to see where we are next year, and to see who else will jump on the bandwagon!
Excitement is building within the digital pathology community as we prepare to kick off the 99th annual meeting of the United States and Canadian Association of Pathology (USCAP) this weekend in Washington DC. Although I have attended this meeting several times, this year I have a whole new perspective. Instead of being an exhibitor, I am a registered attendee!! This may seem like a trivial change, yet, think of it this way. I’m not confined to a 10×20 rectangle, I do not have to eat lunch in shifts with a buddy, I’m invited to cocktail parties, and of course, no set-up or breakdown!
As a registered attendee, I am looking forward to:
With lots of news coming out in anticipation of the meeting and to keep the conversations going while at the meeting, please join me in tweeting about USCAP with #USCAP10 and Digital Pathology with #digpath. Let’s gain impressions and share information through twitter. Also, I welcome the opportunity to meet new people. Please send me an email if you would like to catch up.
Subscribe in a reader