Vista, CA – January 4, 2012 - Aperio, the global leader in digital pathology solutions that improve patient care, today announced that David Schlotterbeck, chief executive officer, will present an overview of the company’s business at the 30th Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference on Wednesday, January 11, 2012, at the Westin St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco. The Aperio presentation is scheduled to begin at 10:00 a.m. (PST).

During his formal presentation, Mr. Schlotterbeck will discuss the multi-billion dollar digital pathology market and highlight Aperio’s new direction in digital pathology solutions for both healthcare and life sciences. These solutions will accelerate adoption and allow pathologists to be more effective.

About Aperio

Aperio is the leading provider of digital pathology solutions in hospitals, reference labs, and pharmaceutical and research institutions across the world. Today, our affordable and complete product portfolio improves patient care by enhancing quality assurance, delivering more efficient workflows, facilitating access to new and more targeted therapies, and improving pathologists’ skills via lifelong education. Our comprehensive product line features our ScanScope® scanners, Spectrum™ image management (PACS) software, SecondSlide® slide sharing service for pathology, and image analysis tools and services. Aperio’s products are FDA cleared for specific clinical applications, and are intended for research and education use for other applications. For clearance updates and more information please visit www.aperio.com.   

Contact:
Carol Thornton
Manager, Public Relations
Aperio
760-655-3805
cthornton@aperio.com 


 

Aperio Founder to Focus on Customers and New Solutions; Recruits David Schlotterbeck as CEO to Lead Commercialization

Vista, CA – November 8, 2011 - Aperio, the global leader in providing digital pathology solutions that improve patient care, has announced that Dirk G. Soenksen, Aperio founder, President of the Digital Pathology Association, and inventor of the first ultra-fast scanner for digital pathology, will focus on customer partnerships and leading the development and marketplace adoption of digital pathology solutions.

In his new role as President and Futurist, Soenksen will focus on creating deeper partnerships with customers and accelerating the development of innovative solutions that will enable pathologists to expand the scope of their practice and gain access to new tools that will enhance their role in providing personalized medicine.

“Aperio’s accelerating growth has created the need for additional leadership. We have more systems installed than all competitors combined. In addition, we have an exciting and well-defined product roadmap that will enable pathologists to be more effective in supporting the patient’s care team,” said Soenksen. “I intend to focus my time on customer needs, partnerships and on the execution of product and solution development.”

“I am excited to have recruited David Schlotterbeck, retired CEO of CareFusion, to serve as Chief Executive Officer of Aperio. Splitting leadership responsibilities allows the company to execute and scale with increasing speed,” said Soenksen. “Dave has a proven 20-year track record of creating value in the healthcare space and I look forward to working with Dave as he leads our efforts to commercialize our products and solutions globally.”

“I am delighted to serve as CEO of Aperio and to work with Dirk and the Aperio team to improve patient care through digital pathology,” said Schlotterbeck. “I am stepping back into a full-time role because of my excitement about the business opportunity for Aperio to deliver products and solutions that can positively impact the practice of pathology. Adoption of digital pathology is accelerating globally and I’m thrilled to help Aperio achieve worldwide growth.”

About Aperio

Aperio is the leading provider of digital pathology solutions in hospitals, reference labs, and pharmaceutical and research institutions across the world. Today, our affordable and complete product portfolio improves patient care by enhancing quality assurance, delivering more efficient workflows, facilitating access to new and more targeted therapies, and improving pathologists’ skills via lifelong education. Our comprehensive product line features our ScanScope® scanners, Spectrum™ image management (PACS) software, SecondSlide® slide sharing service for pathology, and image analysis tools and services. Aperio’s products are FDA cleared for specific clinical applications, and are intended for research and education use for other applications. For clearance updates and more information please visit www.aperio.com.   

Contact:
Tasha Hicks
Director, Marketing
Aperio
760.539.1118
tasha@aperio.com 


 

Milford, MA, and Vista, CA – October 31, 2011 - Psyche Systems Corporation and Aperio announced today that the companies have formed a strategic relationship which will provide customers an end-to-end integrated LIS and Digital Pathology solution. The collaboration will provide seamless, bi-directional data and image sharing to support a multitude of workflows in the Pathology Laboratory.

The integration of Aperio’s Spectrum™ Healthcare data management system and Psyche Systems’ WindoPath Anatomic Pathology solution will enable single sign-on and data transfer in support of the Pathologist’s workflow—improving the efficiency and quality of pathology services that laboratories are able to provide.

The companies are launching the alliance at the Pathology Visions Conference, October 30 - November 2, 2011. Attendees of the conference are welcome to visit both companies on the exhibit floor to learn more about the relationship. Psyche Systems is in booth #101; Aperio is in booth #210.

About Psyche Systems Corporation

Since 1976, Psyche Systems has delivered products that help laboratories of all sizes run more efficiently and cost-effectively. Psyche’s WindoPath AP system, Clinical LIS, e.Outreach, EMR Internet Interface, MicroPath, and SBB blood bank software deliver a completely integrated solution for all areas and types of laboratories. Psyche’s products are fully integrated or stand-alone and support full automation, integration with instruments, clinical and back-office systems, Outreach and Meaningful Use initiatives.

For more information, visit www.psychesystems.com.

About Aperio

Aperio is the leading provider of digital pathology solutions in hospitals, reference labs, and pharmaceutical and research institutions across the world. Today, our affordable and complete product portfolio improves patient care by enhancing quality assurance, delivering more efficient workflows, facilitating access to new and more targeted therapies, and improving pathologists’ skills via lifelong education. Our comprehensive product line features our ScanScope® scanners, Spectrum™ image management (PACS) software, SecondSlide® slide sharing service for pathology, and image analysis tools and services. Aperio’s products are FDA cleared for specific clinical applications, and are intended for research and education use for other applications. For clearance updates and more information please visit www.aperio.com.   

Contacts:
Tasha Hicks
Director, Marketing
Aperio
760.539.1118
tasha@aperio.com 

Lisa-Jean Clifford
Psyche Systems Corporation
508-473-1500, 357
lj@psychessytems.com
 

Vista, CA – October 31, 2011 - Aperio, the global leader in providing digital pathology solutions that improve patient care, is realizing a pronounced increase in demand for its digital pathology solutions as a result of offering an increased breadth of products designed to help pathologists be more effective, including:

• Clinical workflow software for applications that include internal, external and intra-operative consultations, archival and retrieval, quantification of breast tissue biomarkers, tumor board preparation, and patient communication and education.
• The ScanScope® AT slide scanning instrument, configurable from 40 to 400 slides, which provides customer with the lowest cost per slide, highest throughput and smallest footprint.
• The ScanScope® FL slide scanning instrument with industry-leading reproducibility for the quantification of multiple fluorescent biomarkers.
• Access to Definiens™ Tissue Studio from Aperio’s integrated image management and analysis environment.

“Our clinical workflow solution is the direct results of staying close to our customers” said Jared N. Schwartz, Chief Medical Officer of Aperio. “We are pleased by the strong customer response to this new offering, which is a reflection of our focus on creating solutions designed to increase the productivity and efficiency of pathologists and to enable them to deliver more precision and personalized care to patients.”

Building on a global installed base of over 850 systems in more than 30 countries—more than all of its competitors, combined—Aperio has increased its investment in key areas to respond to this growing demand, including (i) doubling the size of its instrument and software development teams, (ii) tripling the size of its product management team, (iii) doubling the size of its healthcare sales team, and (iv) opening an office in China. In 2011 Aperio has added over 50 new staff to its team of over 220 employees. Significant contracts signed with leading customers include:

• Allina Health System, Minneapolis, MN
• Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA
• Inova Fairfax Hospital, Washington, DC
• Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, FL
• Pocono Medical Center, East Stroudsburg, PA
• University of Michigan Health System, Ann Arbor, MI
• Labmedicin SkÃ¥ne, Lund, Sweden
• Bergen University Hospital, Bergen, Norway
• Gavle Hospital, Gavle, Sweden
• University of Western Ontario – Victoria Research Labs, London, ON
• Thomas Jefferson University – Kimmel Cancer Center, Philadelphia, PA
• NeoGenomics Laboratories, Fort Myers, FL
• Washington DC VA Medical Center, Washington, DC
• Medtronic, Santa Rosa, CA
• EMD Millipore, Temecula, CA
• MPI Research, Mattawan, MI
• Imclone, New York, NY
• Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, NY
• Merrimack Pharmaceuticals, Cambridge, MA
• Metamark Genetics, Cambridge, MA

“At Aperio we understand the key elements of digital pathology—pathology, workflow and information technology—better than anyone else,” said Dirk G. Soenksen, CEO of Aperio. “Our industry-leading installed base gives us the unique ability to provide customers with an informed view of best practices in digital pathology, and to provide them with proven, scalable and cost-effective digital pathology solutions.”

About Aperio

Aperio is the leading provider of digital pathology solutions in hospitals, reference labs, and pharmaceutical and research institutions across the world. Today, our affordable and complete product portfolio improves patient care by enhancing quality assurance, delivering more efficient workflows, facilitating access to new and more targeted therapies, and improving pathologists’ skills via lifelong education. Our comprehensive product line features our ScanScope® scanners, Spectrum™ image management (PACS) software, SecondSlide® slide sharing service for pathology, and image analysis tools and services. Aperio’s products are FDA cleared for specific clinical applications, and are intended for research and education use for other applications. For clearance updates and more information please visit www.aperio.com.   

Contacts:
Tasha Hicks
Director, Marketing
Aperio
760.539.1118
tasha@aperio.com 
 

Vista, CA – October 20, 2011 - Aperio, the global leader in providing digital pathology solutions that improve patient care, and Visiopharm, a leading provider of advanced software for quantitative microscopy for life sciences, today announced a partnership in which Aperio will market Visiopharm’s computer assisted stereological toolbox (newCAST™) in Europe.

With inventions and intellectual property that have contributed to the creation and growth of the digital pathology market, Aperio is the clear leader in digital pathology systems. The company has the broadest patent portfolio in the field, with more than 100 issued and pending patents worldwide, including a license to the Olympus/Bacus patents. Leveraging Aperio’s open architecture, newCAST Whole Slide Stereology package will be integrated into the company’s applications framework and accessible through its Spectrum™ information management system. The partnership expands Aperio’s existing suite of analysis tools that include area quantification, cell quantification, microvessel analysis, rare event detection and Genie histology pattern recognition.

“Our partnership with Visiopharm enhances our ability to provide stereological data to researchers," said Dirk G. Soenksen, CEO of Aperio. “We are excited that Visiopharm recognizes the value of marketing their leading Whole Slide Stereology tools on Aperio’s platform.”

Stereology allows researchers to answer fundamentally different research questions than image analysis or manual assessment of histological sections. With stereology, researchers can answer questions relating to total micro-structural content in 3-D, such as total number (of cells), length of structures, surface area of structures, and volume of structures. These properties are provided as statistically unbiased estimates with a known precision, and are based upon 2-D histological sections.

In particular, Aperio users who publish neurological, pulmonary and toxicologic data will benefit from the additional capabilities provided by this comprehensive set of stereology tools.

Dr. Michael Grunkin, CEO of Visiopharm, stated, “An increasing number of scientific societies and journals are realizing that accuracy of quantitative data requires stereological methods for estimation. Therefore guidelines recommending, and in some cases mandating, stereology for quantitative studies are being adopted. With increasing regulatory attention to stereology, biopharma executives and researchers are also realizing that stereology is a method they can no longer afford to ignore. With its patented Whole Slide Stereology software, Visiopharm is providing an efficient research tool that makes it realistic to include stereology even in research environments with high throughput requirements.”

Aperio’s digital pathology platform provides a unique combination of instruments, image management software and a patent-protected architecture that allows image analysis partners such as Visiopharm to offer their applications to the largest and fastest growing installed base (850 systems, including 550 in hospitals and reference labs) of digital pathology customers.

About Visiopharm

Visiopharm is an international technology leader in histoinformatics, covering image analysis, stereology, and data management. Our solutions reduce labor costs, improve productivity, standardize quantitative processes, and produce accurate, traceable, quantitative results for histopathology. Throughout the world pharmaceutical companies, biotech companies, universities, hospitals and contract research organizations successfully use Visiopharm software to obtain scientifically trustworthy data.   

About Aperio

Aperio is the leading provider of digital pathology solutions in hospitals, reference labs, and pharmaceutical and research institutions across the world. Today, our affordable and complete product portfolio improves patient care by enhancing quality assurance, delivering more efficient workflows, facilitating access to new and more targeted therapies, and improving pathologists’ skills via lifelong education. Our comprehensive product line features our ScanScope® scanners, Spectrum™ image management (PACS) software, SecondSlide® slide sharing service for pathology, and image analysis tools and services. Aperio’s products are FDA cleared for specific clinical applications, and are intended for research and education use for other applications. For clearance updates and more information please visit www.aperio.com.   

Contacts:
Tasha Hicks
Director, Marketing
Aperio
760.539.1118
tasha@aperio.com 

Lene Gerlach
Vice President, Business Development
Visiopharm
+45 2031 7460
lge@visiopharm.com
 

Vista, CA – September 9, 2011 - Aperio, the global leader in providing digital pathology solutions that improve patient care, today announced that the company has successfully defended key US and European patents covering line-scanning technology in digital pathology systems. These decisions uphold Aperio’s patent rights as the innovator of industry-leading technology in digital pathology.

With inventions and intellectual property that have contributed to the creation and growth of the digital pathology market, Aperio is the clear leader in digital pathology systems. The company has the broadest patent portfolio in the field, with more than 100 issued and pending patents worldwide, including a license to the Olympus/Bacus patents.

Facts surrounding Aperio’s recent patent victories include:

•    In August, 2008 Aperio was granted European Patent Number 1317685 covering its digital slide scanner technology, which was challenged in May, 2009 by Hamamatsu Photonics KK. In June, 2011 the European Patent Office held a hearing and determined that Aperio’s patent claim to a digital slide scanner that uses a line scan camera with a focus map was valid.

•    In March, 2004 Aperio was granted United States Patent Number 6,711,283 covering its digital slide  scanner technology, which was challenged in November, 2009 by Hamamatsu Photonics KK. In March, 2011 the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) made a final determination that Aperio’s claim to a digital slide scanner that uses a line scan camera with a focus map to capture, compress and align digital image strips into a contiguous digital slide was valid.

“All leading digital pathology systems on the market today utilize line-scanning technology,” said Aperio CEO Dirk G. Soenksen. “Aperio invented the use of line-scanning for creating whole-slide images and has a rich portfolio of patents covering this technological breakthrough. The affirmation by both the US and European patent offices regarding the validity of our patents during contested proceedings significantly strengthens our patents, and we are delighted with the outcome. Aperio has invested considerable resources to create the most technologically advanced digital pathology systems available today, and we remain committed to defending our intellectual property.”

With more system installations than all other digital pathology vendors combined, Aperio is the global leader in digital pathology solutions. The company has an installed base of more than 850 systems in over 30 countries, including more than 550 systems in hospitals and reference laboratories. The company’s customers also include the 13 largest pharmaceutical companies as well as numerous biotechnology and government organizations.

About Aperio

Aperio is the leading provider of digital pathology solutions in hospitals, reference labs, and pharmaceutical and research institutions across the world. Today, our affordable and complete product portfolio improves patient care by enhancing quality assurance, delivering more efficient workflows, facilitating access to new and more targeted therapies, and improving pathologists’ skills via lifelong education. Our comprehensive product line features our ScanScope® scanners, Spectrum™ image management (PACS) software, SecondSlide® slide sharing service for pathology, and image analysis tools and services. Aperio’s products are FDA cleared for specific clinical applications, and are intended for research and education use for other applications. For clearance updates and more information please visit www.aperio.com.   

Contacts:
Tasha Hicks
Director, Marketing
Aperio
760.539.1118
tasha@aperio.com 

Myla Wagner
Myla Wagner Public Relations
925.736.7515
myla@mylawagnerpr.com
 

Vista, CA – August 24, 2011 - Aperio, the global leader in providing digital pathology solutions that improve patient care, today announced that it has contracted with Labmedicin SkÃ¥ne, of Lund, Sweden, part of SkÃ¥ne Health Services, to implement 14 digital pathology systems throughout its pathology laboratories located in Helsingborg, Kristianstad, Lund, and Malmö to provide a more robust laboratory service that will expand access to high quality sub-specialized pathology diagnostics to more communities in the Region SkÃ¥ne. The contract is a collaborative agreement between Aperio, LRI Imaging AB (Aperio’s Swedish distributor), and Software Point, a Finland-based laboratory information systems vendor owned by LabVantage Group.

Aperio’s digital pathology system will be fully integrated with Software Point’s Sapphire C5 laboratory information system via Aperio’s Spectrum pathology information management software, optimizing workflow and facilitating access to digital slide images and case data between the two systems. Implementation of the integrated solution is anticipated to start in Fall 2011, with plans to be fully operational by Spring 2012. The integrated system will link the four regional hospital pathology labs, estimated to produce 500,000 slides annually, for shared pathology services.

“We are very excited about the opportunity to access digital slide images and consolidate our pathologists’ workflow into one system,” stated Lena Luts, director of operations for clinical pathology at Labmedicin SkÃ¥ne. “Digital access to whole-slide image data will completely transform our pathology business, saving our pathologists a vast amount of time. Being able to replace glass slides with digital images will help us significantly improve the diagnostic process and decrease turnaround time for interpretations, resulting in improved quality and patient safety.”

The 14 system installation will include 10 ScanScope® ATs, Aperio’s new addition to its patented line of ScanScope slide scanning instruments. The new ScanScope AT incorporates the very latest technology to deliver the most compact, highest throughput, lowest cost-per-slide, highest-capacity scanner on the market today with superior image quality and highest first scan success rate for high-throughput applications.

Aperio CEO Dirk G. Soenksen said, “Aperio’s win of this significant contract demonstrates our continued global leadership in providing superior, low cost solutions on the industry’s most robust digital pathology platform. We are honored to provide Labmedicin SkÃ¥ne with digital pathology solutions that will help define best practices in laboratory medicine and inform better patient care decisions.”

Scanned images of slides from the four laboratories will be transferred to a central bank. This will improve laboratory workflow and allow pathologists and other employees at the laboratories to follow the specimen from the time the sample arrives at the laboratory until the response is sent to the originator. In addition, pathologists are ensured a permanent and easily accessible digitized slide image for all of their cases, which can be used by surgeons and pathologists from different hospitals to communicate about a case, or for research, audit, or quality assurance purposes. The image bank is expected to be one of the largest in Northern Europe.

With more system installations than all other digital pathology vendors combined, Aperio is the global leader and reliable choice for world class digital pathology solutions. The company has a global installed base of more than 800 systems in over 30 countries, including more than 500 systems in hospitals and reference laboratories, the 13 largest pharmaceutical companies and a multitude of biotechnology and government organizations.

Live demonstrations of Aperio’s digital pathology system will be available at Aperio’s exhibit booth (#5a33) at the 23rd European Congress of Pathology, August 27 – September 1, in Helsinki, Finland.  

About Aperio

Aperio is the leading provider of digital pathology solutions in hospitals, reference labs, and pharmaceutical and research institutions across the world. Today, our affordable and complete product portfolio improves patient care by enhancing quality assurance, delivering more efficient workflows, facilitating access to new and more targeted therapies, and improving pathologists’ skills via lifelong education. Our comprehensive product line features our ScanScope® scanners, Spectrum™ image management (PACS) software, SecondSlide® slide sharing service for pathology, and image analysis tools and services. Aperio’s products are FDA cleared for specific clinical applications, and are intended for research and education use for other applications. For clearance updates and more information please visit www.aperio.com.  

Contacts:
Tasha Hicks
Director, Marketing
Aperio
760.539.1118
tasha@aperio.com 

Myla Wagner
Myla Wagner Public Relations
925.736.7515
myla@mylawagnerpr.com
 

Global Digital Pathology Leader Adds Orchid Cellmark Executive to Its Board of Directors

Vista, CA – May 19, 2011 - Aperio, the global leader in providing digital pathology solutions that improve patient care, today announced that it has appointed Thomas Bologna, President & Chief Executive Officer of Orchid Cellmark, Inc. (NASDAQ: ORCH), a leading service provider of DNA identity testing, to its Board of Directors. Last week, Aperio announced that healthcare veteran David Schlotterbeck had also joined its Board.

“Tom has created a tremendous legacy building and leading highly profitable, publicly held and venture-backed healthcare companies, and we are very fortunate to have him join our Board,” said Dirk G. Soenksen, Chairman and CEO of Aperio. “Tom’s strong operational experience in scaling companies and his deep domain knowledge in the diagnostics market in particular will strengthen Aperio’s ability to seize new opportunities in the dynamic digital pathology market.”

“Digital pathology is rapidly gaining momentum as a proven technology that is helping to reduce laboratory expenses, improve operational efficiencies, and significantly enhance patient care,” noted Bologna. “Aperio is in an excellent position to strengthen its lead in this growing market and I’m thrilled to be joining the company at this time.”

Prior to joining Orchid Cellmark, Bologna was Chief Executive Officer of Quorex Pharmaceuticals, a venture-backed company acquired by Pfizer Inc., and Ostex International, Inc. (NASDAQ: OSTX). Previously, he was Chief Executive Officer of Gen-Probe, a global leader in the development, manufacture and marketing of molecular diagnostics products and services, where he scaled the Company, took it public on NASDAQ and subsequently sold to Chugai Pharmaceutical Co. Bologna’s prior experience also includes senior-level positions with Becton Dickinson Diagnostic Systems, where he led the commercialization effort for the Company’s automated microbiology line.

This appointment represents a continued enhancement of Aperio’s leadership team. Recent additions include Keith Hagen as COO, Jared Schwartz, MD, PhD, as CMO, Patrick Yount as CFO, and Steven Russell as General Manager of Healthcare.  

About Aperio

Aperio is the leading provider of digital pathology solutions in hospitals, reference labs, and pharmaceutical and research institutions across the world. Today, our affordable and complete product portfolio improves patient care by enhancing quality assurance, delivering more efficient workflows, facilitating access to new and more targeted therapies, and improving pathologists’ skills via lifelong education. Our comprehensive product line features our ScanScope® scanners, Spectrum™ image management (PACS) software, SecondSlide® slide sharing service for pathology, and image analysis tools and services. Aperio’s products are FDA cleared for specific clinical applications, and are intended for research and education use for other applications. For clearance updates and more information please visit www.aperio.com.  

Contacts:
Jessica Witkowski
Director, Marketing Communications
Aperio
760.539.1162
jessica@aperio.com 

Myla Wagner
Myla Wagner Public Relations
925.736.7515
myla@mylawagnerpr.com
 

Vista, CA – May 16, 2011 - Aperio, the global leader in providing digital pathology solutions that improve patient care, today announced the launch of the ScanScope® AT, the latest addition to Aperio’s industry-leading, patented line of ScanScope slide scanning instruments.

For more than a decade, Aperio has been the leader in producing high-quality lab instruments for digitizing microscope slides. The new ScanScope AT incorporates the very latest technology to deliver the most compact, highest throughput, lowest cost-per-slide, highest-capacity scanner on the market today with superior image quality and highest first scan success rate for high-throughput applications.

“The ScanScope AT underscores Aperio’s commitment to the continued development and evolution of our already industry-leading digital pathology technology,” said Dirk G. Soenksen, CEO of Aperio. “The AT has a small footprint for easier installation, yet produces the same high-resolution, superior quality images that Aperio is known for.”

Made possible through a combination of improved efficiencies in scan speed, robotic slide loading and handling, and user interface software design combined with high image quality to minimize rescans, the ScanScope AT is a groundbreaking development for the digital pathology market.

With just a 16-inch by 24-inch footprint, the ScanScope AT features a 400-slide capacity with sustained throughput of 30 slides per hour. Utilizing patented line scanning and inline compression technology, the AT can scan a 20x slide in an all-inclusive time of 95 seconds, producing a fully prepared image ready for immediate viewing.

In addition, automated tissue finding, focusing, and calibration processes yield the highest first-scan success rates, resulting in reduced cost per slide and lower total cost of ownership due to low re-scan rates and high-quality images.

The ScanScope AT comes equipped with an elegant, extensively tested, next generation autoloader designed to minimize mechanical complexity. The new autoloader substantially reduces travel distance for the slide, improving overall scan time and reliability. The system interoperates with Sakura slide racks, allowing slides to be transferred into Aperio slide racks 20 at a time, further saving time and improving throughput.

Greg Crandall, Aperio’s chief engineer, stated, “The design of the AT benefits tremendously from Aperio’s 11 years of experience building scanners. Not only is it our fastest scanner to date, it is also our most reliable in terms of slide handling. We have created a horizontal slide loader that holds almost four times as many slides as our previous model while fully supporting the slide throughout a very short travel distance, thus maximizing the safety of even imperfectly prepared slides.”

Digital slides are stored in standard SVS (TIFF) format, consistent with all other Aperio ScanScope scanners and the company’s Spectrum™ image management (PACS) software and high-performance remote viewing technology.

With more system installations than all other digital pathology vendors combined, Aperio is the true global leader and reliable choice for world class digital pathology solutions. The company boasts a global installed base of more than 800 systems in over 30 countries, including more than 500 systems in hospitals and reference laboratories, the 13 largest pharmaceutical companies and a multitude of biotechnology and government organizations.  

About Aperio

Aperio is the leading provider of digital pathology solutions in hospitals, reference labs, and pharmaceutical and research institutions across the world. Today, our affordable and complete product portfolio improves patient care by enhancing quality assurance, delivering more efficient workflows, facilitating access to new and more targeted therapies, and improving pathologists’ skills via lifelong education. Our comprehensive product line features our ScanScope® scanners, Spectrum™ image management (PACS) software, SecondSlide® slide sharing service for pathology, and image analysis tools and services. Aperio’s products are FDA cleared for specific clinical applications, and are intended for research and education use for other applications. For clearance updates and more information please visit www.aperio.com.  

Contacts:
Jessica Witkowski
Director, Marketing Communications
Aperio
760.539.1162
jessica@aperio.com 

Myla Wagner
Myla Wagner Public Relations
925.736.7515
myla@mylawagnerpr.com
 

Vista, CA and Munich, Germany – May 10, 2011 - Aperio, the global leader in providing digital pathology solutions that improve patient care, and Definiens, the leading Health Image Intelligence™ company, today announced a partnership in which Aperio will market Definiens Tissue Studio™, the company’s leading image analysis software for quantitative digital pathology, on a worldwide, non-exclusive basis.

Image analysis is a cutting-edge capability that provides automated quantitative analytical techniques to help pathologists interpret pathology slides, which informs treatment decisions and improves patient care.

Definiens Tissue Studio will be integrated into Aperio’s applications framework and accessible through its Spectrum™ information management system to expand the existing suite of image analysis tools that include Area Quantification, Cell Quantification, Microvessel Analysis, Rare Event Detection and Genie Histology Pattern Recognition. The Spectrum system includes viewing tools and enables the execution of analysis applications in a geographically distributed environment for maximum throughput.

“This alliance furthers our ability to significantly improve intra- and inter-observer agreement and patient care by providing the most scalable and highest performance digital pathology solutions available,” said Dirk G. Soenksen, CEO of Aperio. “We are excited that Definiens recognizes the value of leveraging their leading image analysis software on the industry’s most robust digital pathology platform.”

Definiens Tissue Studio automatically detects regions of interest within a tissue sample and quantifies these regions on a cell-by-cell basis. The detailed quantification enables a large number of standard and user-defined measurements. In addition to classifications such as staining intensity and cell counts, the software quantifies individual cellular morphological characteristics such as circularity, elliptical fit, area, length, width and distance to tumor border to help accurately measure nuclear, cytoplasmic, and membrane biomarkers. Additionally, it allows users to create completely new features offering virtually unlimited quantification related to biomarker expression and tissue morphology.

Aperio users in both healthcare and life sciences will benefit from Definiens Tissue Studio’s fluorescence image analysis capabilities and morphometry tools. Morphometry can provide pathologists with a means to make more educated decisions about a course of treatment, and to determine the relative effect of drug candidates on cells and tissues.

“Digital pathology is becoming an essential technology for increasing productivity and improving treatment decisions,” said Thomas Heydler, CEO of Definiens. “Automated image analysis is the next step in digital pathology, providing clinicians with greater insight into patients’ disease states. Definiens Tissue Studio is a natural fit for Aperio’s platform, and we expect to reach a wide customer base as a result of this partnership.”

Aperio’s digital pathology platform provides a unique combination of instruments, image management software and a patent-protected architecture that allows image analysis partners such as Definiens to offer their applications to the largest and fastest growing installed base (800 systems, including 500 in hospitals and reference labs) of digital pathology customers. Aperio plans to continually expand its capabilities with tools from other suppliers.  

About Definiens

Definiens is a leading Health Image Intelligence™ company that develops software solutions for biomedical image analysis, data mining and clinical decision support. The company’s software analyzes images from cell-based assays, whole tissue slides and full body scans and allows users to correlate this information with data derived from other sources, supporting better decisions in research, diagnostics and therapy. By automating analysis workflows and generating new knowledge, Definiens provides pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, research institutions, clinical service organizations and medical professionals with deeper insights, faster results and better decision support. Harnessing the power of image intelligence, Definiens supports personalized medicine and aims to significantly improve the quality of patients’ lives.

Definiens is headquartered in Munich, Germany, and has offices throughout the United States. Further information is available at www.definiens.com.

Definiens – from images to clinical decisions.  

About Aperio

Aperio is the leading provider of digital pathology solutions in hospitals, reference labs, and pharmaceutical and research institutions across the world. Today, our affordable and complete product portfolio improves patient care by enhancing quality assurance, delivering more efficient workflows, facilitating access to new and more targeted therapies, and improving pathologists’ skills via lifelong education. Our comprehensive product line features our ScanScope® scanners, Spectrum™ image management (PACS) software, SecondSlide® slide sharing service for pathology, and image analysis tools and services. Aperio’s products are FDA cleared for specific clinical applications, and are intended for research and education use for other applications. For clearance updates and more information please visit www.aperio.com.  

Contacts:
Jessica Witkowski
Director, Marketing Communications
Aperio
760.539.1162
jessica@aperio.com 

Myla Wagner
Myla Wagner Public Relations
925.736.7515
myla@mylawagnerpr.com
 

Vista, CA – May 9, 2011 - Aperio, the global leader in providing digital pathology solutions that improve patient care, today announced that David Schlotterbeck, former Chairman and CEO of CareFusion, has been appointed to its Board of Directors.

“Dave has considerable operational experience building and leading successful organizations that sell innovative technology-based solutions to hospitals and other healthcare institutions,” said Dirk G. Soenksen, Chairman and CEO of Aperio. “Given the rapid emergence of the digital pathology market, including growing interest from pathologists and hospitals, we are excited to add Dave’s expertise to our board at this important time. Over 500 Aperio systems are being used in hospitals and reference labs today, and while this makes us by far the leader, it’s clear that we are only scratching the surface. Dave represents another impactful and highly leverageable addition to our leadership team that will help drive growth.”

Mr. Schlotterbeck recently served as Chairman and CEO of CareFusion, a leading medical technology company. Previously, he was Vice Chairman of Cardinal Health and CEO of its Clinical and Medical Products business segment. He joined Cardinal Health through the acquisition of Alaris Medical Systems, where he served as President and CEO from 1999 through 2004. Mr. Schlotterbeck previously held senior executive leadership positions with Pacific Scientific Company; Vitalcom, Inc.; and Nellcor, Inc.

“It’s clear that digital pathology is much bigger than whole slide imaging and viewing, and that digital pathology will have a significant impact on patient care and personalized medicine,” commented Dave Schlotterbeck. “I’m pleased to be on the Aperio board, and look forward to helping the Company solidify its global leadership position.”

The addition of Dave Schlotterbeck complements the recent addition of several healthcare executives to Aperio’s leadership team, including Keith Hagen as Chief Operating Officer, Jared Schwartz, MD, PhD, as Chief Medical Officer, Patrick Yount as Chief Financial Officer, and Steven Russell as General Manager of Healthcare.

Other Aperio Board members include Chairman and CEO Dirk Soenksen; Martin Felsenthal, Partner at HLM Venture Partners; Mark Gergen, Senior Vice President of corporate development at Amylin Pharmaceuticals; Tom Rodgers, Partner at Advanced Technology Ventures (ATV); and Zubeen Schroff, Partner at Galen Partners.  

About Aperio

Aperio is the leading provider of digital pathology solutions in hospitals, reference labs, and pharmaceutical and research institutions across the world. Today, our affordable and complete product portfolio improves patient care by enhancing quality assurance, delivering more efficient workflows, facilitating access to new and more targeted therapies, and improving pathologists’ skills via lifelong education. Our comprehensive product line features our ScanScope® scanners, Spectrum™ image management (PACS) software, SecondSlide® slide sharing service for pathology, and image analysis tools and services. Aperio’s products are FDA cleared for specific clinical applications, and are intended for research and education use for other applications. For clearance updates and more information please visit www.aperio.com.  

Contacts:
Jessica Witkowski
Director, Marketing Communications
Aperio
760.539.1162
jessica@aperio.com 

Myla Wagner
Myla Wagner Public Relations
925.736.7515
myla@mylawagnerpr.com
 

Vista, CA – April 26, 2011 - Aperio, the global leader in providing digital pathology solutions that improve patient care, today announced that its digital pathology system is being used to support subspecialty pathology consultations between Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center (UCLA) in Los Angeles, Calif., and Second Affiliated Hospital Zhejiang University, (ZHU) a 2,000-bed top-ranked hospital located in Hangzhou, China.

UCLA has a pool of more than 30 sub-specialty experts in pathology that are available to provide remote medical consultation services to China for unusual and complex cases. Aperio’s patented scanning technology allows pathologists at ZHU to capture a digital slide image at very high resolution of the entire tissue sample on a glass slide and share it with pathology experts at UCLA in a secure web-based environment. More than 100 cases have been remotely reviewed to date. The Aperio digital pathology system facilitates the ability to bring high-quality, expert pathology services to China, significantly improving intra and inter observer agreement and ensuring effective treatment to improve patient care.

“UCLA and ZHU selected the only true global leader in digital pathology that can deliver a complete remote consultation capability today,” said Dirk G. Soenksen, CEO of Aperio. “Aperio is helping healthcare organizations of all types deliver sub-specialty pathology services via online access to topnotch virtual pathologists. Pathology expertise is just a mouse click away anywhere in the world to help ensure the best pathology services possible in a fast and cost-effective way.”

Use of Aperio’s patented ScanScope® scanners, Spectrum™ image management (PACS) software and remote viewing technology allows U.S. healthcare companies to compete at an international level, facilitating real-time, high performance access to high-resolution digital slide images.

Jonathan Braun, M.D., Ph.D., chair of pathology and laboratory medicine, and professor of molecular and medical pharmacology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, stated, “Digital pathology allows UCLA to offer the advanced skills of our sub-specialty pathologists to China in real time when a specific type of pathology expertise is needed quickly on a difficult or complex case. Our collaboration illustrates how integral pathology is to patient outcomes. Pathologists have become influential partners in treatment. Digital pathology dramatically enhances our ability to provide patient-centered care.”

UCLA and ZHU pathologists also participate in frequent digital slide conferences using the Aperio system to review individual cases. Pathologists can view annotations on the digital slide image created by other reviewers, while simultaneously adding annotations for others to see. A common cursor superimposed on the digital slide is visible and can be manipulated by all conference participants. The hospitals are also conducting multi-disciplinary conferences, where experts across various disciplines (oncology, radiology, surgery) convene to discuss difficult cases.

With more system installations than all other digital pathology vendors combined, Aperio is the true global leader and reliable choice for world class digital pathology solutions. The company boasts a global installed base of more than 800 systems in over 30 countries, including more than 500 systems in hospitals and reference laboratories, the 13 largest pharmaceutical companies and a multitude of biotechnology and government organizations.  

About Aperio

Aperio is the leading provider of digital pathology solutions in hospitals, reference labs, and pharmaceutical and research institutions across the world. Today, our affordable and complete product portfolio improves patient care by enhancing quality assurance, delivering more efficient workflows, facilitating access to new and more targeted therapies, and improving pathologists’ skills via lifelong education. Our comprehensive product line features our ScanScope® scanners, Spectrum™ image management (PACS) software, SecondSlide® slide sharing service for pathology, and image analysis tools and services. Aperio’s products are FDA cleared for specific clinical applications, and are intended for research and education use for other applications. For clearance updates and more information please visit www.aperio.com.  

Contacts:
Jessica Witkowski
Director, Marketing Communications
Aperio
760.539.1162
jessica@aperio.com 

Myla Wagner
Myla Wagner Public Relations
925.736.7515
myla@mylawagnerpr.com
 

Vista, CA – April 20, 2011 - Aperio, the global leader in providing digital pathology solutions that improve patient care, announced today that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has issued the company patent No. 7,826,649 entitled, “Data Management in a Linear-array-based Microscope Slide Scanner.”

The ‘649 patent describes techniques invented by Aperio for efficiently processing large image files—during the scanning process—to create a single high-quality digital slide image. The ability to create a single digital slide, including image compression, during the scanning process results in faster overall scanning and streamlines digital pathology workflow.

“This patent highlights our ability to create a single digital slide image during the scanning process, which is why our scanners continue to be the fastest on the market,” commented Dirk G. Soenksen, CEO of Aperio. “Our sub-95 second scan time includes all steps required to create a single digital slide image file by the scanning instrument. This patent requires others to divide the scanning process between the scanning instrument and a dedicated server, and to post-compress the imagery data on the server. Doing so takes much longer than their advertised scanning time, complicates the workflow, and requires moving and storing gigabytes of imagery data.”

Aperio has the highest throughput scanners available today. The company’s family of ScanScope® scanners are based on line-scanning, which has become the standard for scanning performance and image quality in the digital pathology industry. Line scanning rapidly produces seamless digital slide images with unsurpassed image quality, and is critical to a pathologist’s ability to make informed diagnoses and prognoses of diseases.

The patent strengthens Aperio’s comprehensive intellectual property portfolio comprising more than 80 issued and pending patents world-wide, and provides the company with ownership of key innovations that address critical pathology imaging needs.

With more system installations than all other digital pathology vendors combined, Aperio is the true global leader and reliable choice for world class digital pathology solutions. The company boasts a global installed base of more than 800 systems in over 30 countries, including more than 500 systems in hospitals and reference laboratories, the 13 largest pharmaceutical companies and a multitude of biotechnology and government organizations.  

About Aperio

Aperio is the leading provider of digital pathology solutions in hospitals, reference labs, and pharmaceutical and research institutions across the world. Today, our affordable and complete product portfolio improves patient care by enhancing quality assurance, delivering more efficient workflows, facilitating access to new and more targeted therapies, and improving pathologists’ skills via lifelong education. Our comprehensive product line features our ScanScope® scanners, Spectrum™ image management (PACS) software, SecondSlide® slide sharing service for pathology, and image analysis tools and services. Aperio’s products are FDA cleared for specific clinical applications, and are intended for research and education use for other applications. For clearance updates and more information please visit www.aperio.com.  

Contacts:
Jessica Witkowski
Director, Marketing Communications
Aperio
760.539.1162
jessica@aperio.com 

Myla Wagner
Myla Wagner Public Relations
925.736.7515
myla@mylawagnerpr.com
 

Augusta, GA and Vista, CA – February 22, 2011 - The United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology (USCAP), the global leader in the transmission of knowledge in the field of pathology for more than a century, and Aperio, the global leader in providing digital pathology solutions that improve patient care, will be showcasing the digital launch of the Dr. Juan Rosai Collection of Surgical Pathology Seminars at the 100th USCAP Annual Meeting, to be held February 26 – March 4, 2011, at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center, San Antonio, TX. (Booth 114 has been reserved for viewing of the collection.)

Dr. Juan Rosai, a world-renowned expert and consultant in surgical pathology, has donated his extensive glass slide seminar series collection inherited from the late Lauren V. Ackerman, MD for the world to view. The complete collection consists of almost 20,000 cases originally presented at more than 1,400 pathology seminars, and comprises digital slide images of the original slides, clinical history, and diagnostic summaries, along with present day commentary by Rosai and other experts. At this time, seminars are continuously being added to the site, with the full collection to be accessible within the coming months.

“I am honored that the USCAP and Aperio have collaborated to provide the pathology community with a digital archive and interactive learning environment for this one-of-a-kind, historical collection,” said Rosai. “Now, pathologists around the world will be able to access and learn about the evolution of patient care from a pathology perspective. I am very appreciative that the collection will be preserved for eternity for the future of pathologists around the world.”

USCAP and Aperio announced their partnership in 2010 to develop the infrastructure for a digital archive. The collection has been digitized using Aperio’s ScanScope® scanners to ensure high-resolution image quality, and is accessible to the global pathology community, free of charge, through the USCAP website (www.USCAP.org). The USCAP has developed a custom-built website to dynamically interact and interface with the digital slide collection to provide diagnostic and historical context, as well as interactive learning tools. The whole-slide images are hosted by SecondSlide®, Aperio’s free, secure, digital slide sharing service for pathology.

Victor Reuter, former president of the USCAP and vice chair of the Department of Pathology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, commented, “Dr. Rosai has served as an inspiration to thousands of pathologists throughout the world for many decades. He epitomizes everything that morphology has contributed to the understanding of disease across many disciplines. A masterful teacher, it should not surprise us that he has maintained this collection over the years and has now chosen to share it with the global pathology community. I congratulate Aperio and USCAP for supporting this project that is sure to have profound educational and historical importance.”

“Aperio’s ongoing advancements in digital pathology systems, including our patented, high-resolution slide creation, image visualization techniques and innovative slide sharing systems are completely transforming the pathology landscape,” stated Jared N. Schwartz, MD, PhD, chief medical officer at Aperio. “Digital pathology provides the means to significantly advance scientific knowledge, whether it be through the preservation of valuable slide archives like the Juan Rosai collection, identifying biomarkers to advance personalized medicine, or connecting two pathologists in different parts of the world for pathology consultation.”
 

About USCAP

The United States & Canadian Academy of Pathology (USCAP/IAP) has been the global leader in the transmission of knowledge in the field of pathology for more than 100 years. The Academy has had a rich heritage of leading the provision of highest standards of pathology education for pathologist members like no other organization and attracts to its ranks the leaders in key areas of pathology.

The phrase "Leading Pathology Educational Excellence," used in conjunction with the USCAP graphic identity, provides an accurate and appropriate description of the Academy's activities on two levels: 1) providing "leading pathology educational excellence" via its faculty and programs; 2) leading "pathology educational excellence" with ongoing innovation and scientific breakthroughs for the field of pathology.

Through the efforts of its outstanding membership, the USCAP is able to extend educational excellence to Pathologists around the world.  

About Aperio

Aperio is the leading provider of digital pathology solutions in hospitals, reference labs, and pharmaceutical and research institutions across the world. Today, our affordable and complete product portfolio improves patient care by enhancing quality assurance, delivering more efficient workflows, facilitating access to new and more targeted therapies, and improving pathologists’ skills via lifelong education. Our comprehensive product line features our ScanScope® scanners, Spectrum™ image management (PACS) software, SecondSlide® slide sharing service for pathology, and image analysis tools and services. Aperio’s products are FDA cleared for specific clinical applications, and are intended for research and education use for other applications. For clearance updates and more information please visit www.aperio.com.   

Contacts:
Victoria Hann
Director of Marketing and Development
USCAP
706.733.7550
victoria@uscap.org 

Jessica Witkowski
Director, Marketing Communications
Aperio
760.539.1162
jessica@aperio.com 

Myla Wagner
Myla Wagner Public Relations
925.736.7515
myla@mylawagnerpr.com
 

Vista, CA – January 19, 2011 - Aperio, the global leader in providing digital pathology solutions that improve patient care and enable personalized medicine, today announced the availability of new enhancements to its digital pathology system. Targeting the evolving needs of pathology professionals, Release 11 enhances workflow capabilities and increases the performance of Aperio’s Spectrum™ image and information management system to better enable the viewing, analysis and management of digital slides and other images in a secure multi-user, multi-site environment.

"Release 11 adds and expands key features of our system that address the needs of pathologists in both clinical and research environments, based on broad usage and feedback from our customers,” said Dirk G. Soenksen, CEO of Aperio. “Through our ongoing development efforts we continue to supply the pathology community with the most comprehensive patent-protected digital pathology solutions available to help inform better patient care decisions.”

Spectrum consolidates pathology cases, projects, specimens and slides into an integrated source with 24/7 anytime access, eliminating the transfer of glass slides, improving efficiency and streamlining pathology workflow and analysis.

Spectrum’s secure, customizable workflow has made it the digital pathology information management solution of choice for leading global institutions including ARUP Laboratories and Memorial Sloan Kettering.

Key enhancements to Release 11.0 include:

     ~ New Look and Workflow Enhancements Spectrum has been redesigned with a streamlined look, new images and icons and many additional usability improvements such as an easy-to-use search function and customized data views for streamlined clinical workflow.

     ~ Compliance Module Spectrum includes a compliance module that provides a robust audit system to support GLP and 21 CFR Part 11 compliance standards. Compliance capabilities have been enhanced to provide system administrators and internal and external auditors with more control and additional flexibility, including the ability to require reason entry and electronic signatures on data changes to specified fields.

     ~ Image Analysis A key benefit of Spectrum is the extensive support for image analysis applications to highlight and extract information from digital slides managed by the system. Release 11 offers many enhancements to these applications, such as fluorescence image analysis support and histogram data displays.

Aperio is the recognized leader in digital pathology, with a rapidly growing global installed base of more than 750 systems in over 30 countries, including nearly 500 systems in hospitals and references labs, the 13 largest pharmaceutical companies and a multitude of biotechnology and government organizations.  

About Aperio

Aperio is the leading provider of digital pathology solutions in hospitals, reference labs, and pharmaceutical and research institutions across the world. Today, our affordable and complete product portfolio improves patient care by enhancing quality assurance, delivering more efficient workflows, facilitating access to new and more targeted therapies, and improving pathologists’ skills via lifelong education. Our comprehensive product line features our ScanScope® scanners, Spectrum™ image management (PACS) software, SecondSlide® slide sharing service for pathology, and image analysis tools and services. Aperio’s products are FDA cleared for specific clinical applications, and are intended for research and education use for other applications. For clearance updates and more information please visit www.aperio.com.  

Contacts:
Jessica Witkowski
Director, Marketing Communications
Aperio
760.539.1162
jessica@aperio.com 

Myla Wagner
Myla Wagner Public Relations
925.736.7515
myla@mylawagnerpr.com
 

Vista, CA – December 27, 2010 - Aperio, the global leader in providing digital pathology solutions that improve patient care, today announced that Dirk G. Soenksen, chief executive officer, will speak at the J.P. Morgan 29th Annual Healthcare Conference on January 11, 2011, at the Westin St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco. The Aperio presentation is scheduled to begin at 1:30 pm Pacific Standard Time.

During his session, Mr. Soenksen will provide an overview of the multi-billion dollar digital pathology market and discuss the strategic value of digital pathology in personalized medicine and molecular diagnostics. He will also describe Aperio’s success in increasing adoption in hospitals by enabling pathologists and other physicians to improve patient care.

Aperio is the recognized leader in digital pathology, with a rapidly growing global installed base of more than 750 systems in over 30 countries, including nearly 500 systems in hospitals and references labs, the 13 largest pharmaceutical companies and a multitude of biotechnology and government organizations.
 

About J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference

The J.P. Morgan event is the premier conference of its kind, bringing together established industry leaders, emerging fast-growth companies, innovative technology creators and globally minded service providers. In 2011, the organizers expect more than 300 companies, both public and private, to deliver presentations to more than 4,000 investors.

About Aperio

Aperio is the leading provider of digital pathology solutions in hospitals, reference labs, and pharmaceutical and research institutions across the world. Today, our affordable and complete product portfolio improves patient care by enhancing quality assurance, delivering more efficient workflows, facilitating access to new and more targeted therapies, and improving pathologists’ skills via lifelong education. Our comprehensive product line features our ScanScope® scanners, Spectrum™ image management (PACS) software, SecondSlide® slide sharing service for pathology, and image analysis tools and services. Aperio’s products are FDA cleared for specific clinical applications, and are intended for research and education use for other applications. For clearance updates and more information please visit www.aperio.com.  

Contacts:
Jessica Witkowski
Director, Marketing Communications
Aperio
760.539.1162
jessica@aperio.com 

Myla Wagner
Myla Wagner Public Relations
925.736.7515
myla@mylawagnerpr.com
 

Vista, CA – December 22, 2010 - Aperio, the global leader in providing digital pathology solutions to improve patient care, has appointed Patrick Yount, a veteran of the healthcare industry, as its chief financial officer. Yount’s addition to Aperio directly supports the company’s mission to improve patient care in healthcare and life sciences organizations through its digital pathology solutions.

Yount, former executive vice president and CFO of Univita Health, Inc., has a wealth of financial, strategic and operational expertise in the healthcare industry, including extensive experience in growing companies through acquisitions.

“Patrick’s distinguished record of value creation is founded in his extraordinary financial and strategic leadership skills,” said Dirk G. Soenksen, CEO of Aperio. “We are confident he will contribute to our continued growth and scalability, and we look forward to adding him to our growing list of executives from the healthcare industry, including COO Keith Hagen, CMO Jared N. Schwartz, M.D., and VP of Corporate Development Steven Russell.”

“Dirk has assembled an inspiring team who has achieved remarkable results for customers and as a business," stated Yount. "I'm excited to join Aperio to provide the financial leadership that will allow the company to continue its impressive growth and improve patient care through digital pathology.”

Yount is an accomplished executive with more than 25 years of leadership experience and success working with both public and private healthcare companies. He has held a range of executive-level roles at industry-leading companies, most recently serving as executive vice president/CFO at Univita Health, Inc., the nation’s first company dedicated to helping people age independently, where he developed and executed key strategic initiatives to grow the business and effectively manage change across a high growth organization, in addition to being closely involved with the capital/fund raising and bank financing aspects of the business.

Additionally, Yount formerly held CFO positions with Axia Health Management, Biosensors International and Hudson RCI. He also held executive positions at Good Source Solutions, Banque Paribas/Creditanstalt Bank of America and GE Capital. Yount earned a BS in Finance from San Jose State University and is a graduate of the GE Financial Management Program.
 

About Aperio

Aperio is the leading provider of digital pathology solutions in hospitals, reference labs, and pharmaceutical and research institutions across the world. Today, our affordable and complete product portfolio improves patient care by enhancing quality assurance, delivering more efficient workflows, facilitating access to new and more targeted therapies, and improving pathologists’ skills via lifelong education. Our comprehensive product line features our ScanScope® scanners, Spectrum™ image management (PACS) software, SecondSlide® slide sharing service for pathology, and image analysis tools and services. Aperio’s products are FDA cleared for specific clinical applications, and are intended for research and education use for other applications. For clearance updates and more information please visit www.aperio.com.  

Contacts:
Jessica Witkowski
Director, Marketing Communications
Aperio
760.539.1162
jessica@aperio.com 

Myla Wagner
Myla Wagner Public Relations
925.736.7515
myla@mylawagnerpr.com
 

Vista, CA – December 15, 2010 - Aperio, the global leader in providing digital pathology solutions to improve patient care, today announced that the company is seeing growing global demand for its patented digital pathology system, including its ScanScope® suite of scanners and Spectrum™ information management (PACS) software, leading to continued market expansion.

Aperio boasts a global installed base of more than 700 systems in over 30 countries, including two-thirds of the top 15 rated U.S. hospitals, leading reference laboratories, the 13 largest pharmaceutical companies and a multitude of biotechnology and government organizations.

“Our sustained market leadership and expansion is an exciting milestone for us, and underscores our commitment and ability to meet the varying needs of pathologists around the world,” stated Dirk G. Soenksen, CEO of Aperio. “Our customers rely on our digital pathology systems and services to provide a more adaptive and integrated environment to enhance the efficiency and accuracy of anatomic pathology, resulting in lower costs and improved patient care.”

As digital pathology moves closer to the critical path among clinical organizations, hospitals and academic medical centers are using Aperio’s systems to improve secondary and intra-operative consultations, tumor boards and quality assurance over reads. Intermountain Healthcare, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Yale University School of Medicine have recently made investments in this advanced technology, bringing the number of systems in healthcare organizations to nearly 500.

Digital pathology is also transforming global pharmaceutical research by enabling data sharing to integrate geographically distributed pathology labs around the world, eliminating geography barriers, reducing subjectivity and improving pathology.

Aperio serves a number of life sciences companies that are leading pharmaceutical research in the area of personalized medicine through biomarker discovery. Among them are Novartis, Pfizer, Sanofi-Aventis, Takeda Pharmaceutical and Astellas Pharma Inc., Japan’s second largest pharmaceutical company and ranked within the top 20 in the global market.

Aperio has an established global network of regional distributors providing local sales and support to meet the increased demand for digital pathology systems, and currently maintains its headquarters in the United States with offices in Australia, Canada, Japan and the United Kingdom.

Aperio continues to forge new advancements in digital pathology with an intellectual property portfolio comprising more than 80 issued and pending patents world-wide.
 

About Aperio

Aperio is the leading provider of digital pathology solutions in hospitals, reference labs, and pharmaceutical and research institutions across the world. Today, our affordable and complete product portfolio improves patient care by enhancing quality assurance, delivering more efficient workflows, facilitating access to new and more targeted therapies, and improving pathologists’ skills via lifelong education. Our comprehensive product line features our ScanScope® scanners, Spectrum™ image management (PACS) software, SecondSlide® slide sharing service for pathology, and image analysis tools and services. Aperio’s products are FDA cleared for specific clinical applications, and are intended for research and education use for other applications. For clearance updates and more information please visit www.aperio.com.  

Contacts:
Jessica Witkowski
Director, Marketing Communications
Aperio
760.539.1162
jessica@aperio.com 

Myla Wagner
Myla Wagner Public Relations
925.736.7515
myla@mylawagnerpr.com
 

Global Digital Pathology Leader Supports Interoperability of Systems, Integration of Healthcare Information

Vista, CA – December 10, 2010 - Aperio, the global leader in providing digital pathology solutions to improve patient care, contributed to the expansion of the Digital Imaging and Communication in Medicine’s (DICOM) medical image exchange standard Supplement 145, Whole-Slide Microscopic Images, the first for pathology.

Supplement 145 creates a single standard for the electronic display, sharing, storage and management of digital slides for pathology, helping pathologists to validate the quality of these slides and ultimately enhance patient care. The Supplement also facilitates inter-operability between systems managing medical images, such as pathology, radiology and other medical imaging systems.

“Supplement 145 was a multi-vendor effort, which resulted in a solid enhancement to the DICOM standard to include digital pathology among the supported medical modalities,” commented Ole Eichhorn, chief technology officer of Aperio. “This type of standards effort will foster adoption of digital pathology by assuring hospitals and labs of inter-operability between systems.”

Aperio has consistently supported efforts to create standards for digital pathology, and was a founding member of DICOM Working Group 26, which created Supplement 145. Aperio will support the new standard and continue to work with other medical imaging vendors to foster compatibility between systems.

“As a key member of DICOM Working Group 26, Aperio contributed significantly to the creation of Supplement 145,” said Bruce A. Beckwith, MD, FCAP, chair, Department of Pathology, North Shore Medical Center, Salem, Mass. and co-chairman of DICOM Working Group 26. “The College of American Pathologists was pleased to facilitate the formation of this multi-vendor standard.”

The addition of Supplement 145 to the DICOM standard complements a previous effort by Working Group 26 which resulted in Supplement 122, a specimen model for Pathology.  

About Aperio
 

Aperio is the leading provider of digital pathology solutions in hospitals, reference labs, and pharmaceutical and research institutions across the world. Today, our affordable and complete product portfolio improves patient care by enhancing quality assurance, delivering more efficient workflows, facilitating access to new and more targeted therapies, and improving pathologists’ skills via lifelong education. Our comprehensive product line features our ScanScope® scanners, Spectrum™ image management (PACS) software, SecondSlide® slide sharing service for pathology, and image analysis tools and services. Aperio’s products are FDA cleared for specific clinical applications, and are intended for research and education use for other applications. For clearance updates and more information please visit www.aperio.com.  

Contacts:
Jessica Witkowski
Director, Marketing Communications
Aperio
760.539.1162
jessica@aperio.com 

Myla Wagner
Myla Wagner Public Relations
925.736.7515
myla@mylawagnerpr.com
 

Vista, CA – November 10, 2010 - Aperio, the global leader in providing digital pathology solutions that enhance patient safety and improve patient care, announced today that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has issued the company patent No. 7,787,674 entitled, “Systems and Methods for Viewing Three Dimensional Virtual Slides.”

Digital pathology improves patient care by allowing physicians to access, analyze and share digital (whole microscope) slide images, enabling accurate and reliable diagnoses at lower costs.

The ‘674 patent describes novel techniques for retrieving, manipulating and viewing three dimensional (3D) image objects from three dimensional digital slide images. Unlike 2D digital histology slides that contain a single focus plane sufficient for the majority of viewing situations, 3D digital slides contain multiple, unlimited focus planes that enables digital focusing on specimens that are inherently three-dimensional in nature, such as cytology slides. An image library module allows a 3D image object to be sliced into horizontal and vertical views, skewed cross layer views and regular and irregular shaped 3D image areas for viewing by a user.

“Providing imagery data from multiple focus levels throughout the thickness of a specimen has a significant impact on the accuracy of pathological interpretations in cytology, hematopathology, small tissue biopsies, and microbiology ” commented Dirk G. Soenksen, CEO of Aperio. “This is one more milestone in our quest to enhance our intellectual property portfolio and to develop products that improve patient care.”

This patent extends the intellectual property rights associated with Aperio’s award-winning digital pathology systems, including its patented linear array-based ScanScope™ slide scanning systems, which create seamless, true color whole slide images at giga-pixel resolution from an entire glass slide in minutes. The patented 3D viewing technology is a key component of Aperio’s Spectrum Plus™ image management (PACS) software, which provides applications for storing, managing, viewing and analyzing digital slides.

Aperio’s patent portfolio encompasses all of the elements that comprise a digital pathology system, including digital slide creation, data management, advanced visualization and image analysis. Aperio’s intellectual property portfolio comprises over 80 issued and pending patents world-wide. Aperio is the global digital pathology leader with an installed base of more than 700 systems in over 30 countries.
 

About Aperio

Aperio is the leading provider of digital pathology solutions in hospitals, reference labs, and pharmaceutical and research institutions across the world. Today, our affordable and complete product portfolio improves patient care by enhancing quality assurance, delivering more efficient workflows, facilitating access to new and more targeted therapies, and improving pathologists’ skills via lifelong education. Our comprehensive product line features our ScanScope® scanners, Spectrum™ image management (PACS) software, SecondSlide® slide sharing service for pathology, and image analysis tools and services. Aperio’s products are FDA cleared for specific clinical applications, and are intended for research and education use for other applications. For clearance updates and more information please visit www.aperio.com.  

Contacts:
Jessica Witkowski
Director, Marketing Communications
Aperio
760.539.1162
jessica@aperio.com 

Myla Wagner
Myla Wagner Public Relations
925.736.7515
myla@mylawagnerpr.com
 

Vista, CA – October 12, 2010 – Aperio, the global leader in digital pathology for the healthcare and life sciences industries, has appointed Steven V. Russell to the newly created position of vice president of corporate development.

Russell, former senior vice president of corporate development at QuadraMed, has extensive strategic planning, product management, marketing and corporate development experience in healthcare information technology and healthcare services.

“Steven is a talented healthcare executive with a proven track record of leading growth and expansion efforts by generating market momentum,” said Dirk G. Soenksen, CEO of Aperio. "His strong combination of skills and experience represents an important addition to our management team and supports the continuing success of our growing healthcare business and company growth initiatives.”

Russell’s appointment comes at a time of increasing momentum for Aperio as it continues to assemble an executive management and sales team in response to the growing demand for digital pathology solutions in hospital and reference labs. Russell joins recently hired industry healthcare veterans Keith Hagen as COO and Jared N. Schwartz, MD, PhD, as chief medical officer. Dr. Schwartz was recently honored by the College of American Pathologists as its 2010 Pathologist of the Year in recognition for his strong leadership and outstanding contributions to the College.

Russell will support Aperio’s initiative to help hospitals and healthcare organizations improve patient care by using comprehensive solutions for digital pathology, including whole slide scanning, image viewing, management and analysis. The company recently launched a new program called “Discover Your Path”- the industry’s first quantitative assessment methodology to provide hospital’s with a customized implementation profile - to help drive hospital adoption of digital pathology.

Russell is an accomplished executive with more than 30 years of leadership experience and success. He has held a range of executive-level roles at industry-leading healthcare information technology companies. At QuadraMed, Russell served as senior vice president of corporate development, where he successfully led strategic planning, sales training and support and product partnerships for a product portfolio that generated approximately $150 million in annual revenues. Russell also held executive positions at MedQuist Corporation, HealthScribe, Inc., Compucare Company and Cerner Corporation.

Russell stated, “Aperio is a visionary company with a reputation as an innovator in the digital pathology market. I look forward to joining the team to help the company achieve new levels of success.”

Russell earned a bachelor’s degree from Indiana University, Bloomington, IN and attended Harvard Business School’s “Finance for Senior Executives” program.
 

About Aperio

Aperio is the leading provider of digital pathology solutions in hospitals, reference labs, and biopharma/research institutions across the world. Today, our affordable and complete product portfolio is proven to lower costs, increase efficiencies, and enhance workflow in labs everywhere. Our comprehensive product line features our ScanScope® scanners, Spectrum™ image management (PACS) software, SecondSlide® slide sharing service for pathology, and image analysis tools and services. Aperio’s products are FDA cleared for specific clinical applications, and are intended for research and education use for other applications. For clearance updates and more information please visit www.aperio.com.  

Contacts:
Jessica Witkowski
Director, Marketing Communications
Aperio
760.539.1162
jessica@aperio.com 

Myla Wagner
Myla Wagner Public Relations
925.736.7515
myla@mylawagnerpr.com