Bringing Digital Pathology to Life

Carolinas Pathology Group Considers Virtual Microscopy “Everyday Tool”
ScanScope System’s Cutting Edge Technology Helps Attract Prestigious Client

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Installed in late 2005 at Carolinas Medical Center - Union, a member of Carolinas HealthCare System, the ScanScope CS System has proven its value for a range of applications—including aiding in centralizing consultative pathology services, quality assurance and peer reviews, and continuing education coursework. Carolinas Pathology Group is so pleased with the implementation that it has already identified further uses for the system in its burgeoning pathology group.

Said Dr. Peter Banks, pathologist at the Carolinas Pathology Group, “The Aperio system not only met our needs, but did the job in a better way.”

Dr. Banks first encountered ScanScope digital slides while preparing to teach an ASCP Hematopathology course. Although obtaining enough specimens from solid hematopoietic tumors did not present a problem, bone marrow aspirates and peripheral blood smears did. For these specimens, there was no block to pull, and therefore, no way to create additional slides. In addition, removing the precious fragile glass slides from a lab’s archive, whether for teaching purposes or consultation, meant they might never be returned—losing the only permanent morphologic record of a case. In searching for a solution to this dilemma, Dr. Banks discovered virtual microscopy and Aperio. Aperio’s ScanScope Systems create an entire-slide digital image of a glass slide of superior quality that can be readily copied and distributed. Everyone who views a digital slide is seeing the same exact image—a desirable feature in a case-oriented workshop, and a critical one in proficiency testing. In addition, those attending his courses could take their digital slides back to their own hospitals to share in other continuing education settings, such as tumor boards.

Dr. Banks soon realized the potential in introducing virtual microscopy into his group’s busy clinical practice, which includes 18 board-certified pathologists. His group’s proposal to place a ScanScope at CMC Union was a key factor in earning the exclusive contract for pathology services at that medical center which is managed by Carolinas HealthCare System. The prestigious hospital system appreciated Carolinas Pathology Group’s ability to use ScanScope Systems to provide world class services to remote hospitals that would otherwise not have full access to the wide range of specialists in the pathology group.

Other advantages to this busy clinical practice have become apparent. Dr. Kiran Adlakha, Medical Director of Pathology at the Union site, has been quick to utilize the newly available system by sharing digital slides among her colleagues in the Group who are frequently moving from one hospital to another. Carolinas Pathology is able to institute a consistent level of consultative pathology services across the entire hospital system. Digital slides may be forwarded for review at the viewer’s convenience, or a live real-time consult may be set up—something akin to emulating a digital multi-headed microscope, with the participants at remote sites.

Slides may be shared to access the unique diagnostic skills of subspecialty certified pathologists (breast, hematopath, cytopath, dermatopath, nephropath, bone & soft tissue, etc.), or just as often, to obtain a consensus opinion. Whether the consultation is to agree on a final diagnosis, or to determine the next step in narrowing down the differential diagnosis (such as which immunohistochemical stains to run and in what order), patients will receive the benefit of having two or more pathologists view the case together, collaborating to offer the best possible diagnosis. Another advantage is that digital slides move over a secure Internet connection, and are instantly available to the consulting pathologist. Turnaround time is often diminished by a day or more, since slides no longer need to be couriered from site to site.

When commenting on his comfort level in viewing digital slides, Dr. Banks explained that the experience is highly reminiscent of using a microscope; ScanScope slides move in real-time, without visual tiling or pixilation, and include the ability to zoom in on areas of interest.

When asked about what the future holds at the Carolinas Pathology Group, Dr. Banks’ first response was archiving. He felt this was particularly critical in non-reproducible cases—not only in hematology, but also in cytology. And, he was quick to add, “I am also looking forward to presenting more virtual microscopy-based workshops.”

“We are very pleased that Carolinas Pathology and Carolinas Healthcare System are deriving so many benefits from the ScanScope System,” stated Dirk Soenksen, chief executive officer at Aperio. “These organizations perfectly illustrate how virtual microscopy and digital pathology can transform the pathologist’s work environment and improve efficiency and productivity across many fronts.”

About Digital Pathology and Virtual Microscopy

Virtual microscopy—the practice of converting entire glass microscope slides to high resolution digital slides that can be viewed, managed and analyzed—is the key technology that enables digital pathology. Digital pathology is a digital image-based environment for digital slide viewing and analysis that delivers consistent and accurate results, faster than traditional methods. It facilitates immediate access to information contained in glass microscope slides, from anywhere, and provides powerful tools for the instant archival and intelligent retrieval of histo-pathological data. Digital pathology is compatible with PACS (picture archiving and communication systems) and supports the vision of an enterprise-wide healthcare IT solution aimed at the electronic medical record (EMR).

About Aperio Technologies, Inc.

With the largest installed base of virtual microscopy systems, Aperio Technologies is a worldwide leader in virtual microscopy and digital pathology. Our ScanScope® scanners and software systems deliver integrated digital slide creation, viewing, management, and analysis capabilities to pathologists, and set the standard in digital pathology. Applications include tissue microarrays, toxicologic pathology, image analysis, workflow systems (PACS), telepathology, frozen sections, hematopathology, and cytopathology. Our freely downloadable ImageScope™ viewer makes digital slides accessible anywhere, anytime. With headquarters in Vista, California, Aperio serves a global pathology market in research and education and is pursuing regulatory clearance to address the primary diagnosis in the clinical market. For more information and to view a gallery of digital slides created by ScanScope Systems, please visit www.aperio.com.