Pioneering Digital Pathology Solution Adopted by a University Hospital in The Netherlands

A university hospital in the Netherlands has become one of the first such hospitals in the world to fully digitize its pathology department.

The solution significantly increases the efficiency of the pathology workflow by enabling pathologists to review primary diagnostics cases digitally, and also improves collaboration between radiologists and pathologists, leading to more efficient care of cancer patients.

The digital pathology solution was provided by Sectra (Linköping, Sweden) and implemented by the University Medical Center Utrecht (UMCU; Utrecht, Netherlands), and enables the hospital to store, view and share digital pathology images.

The digital pathology solution uses the same platform as Sectra’s radiology Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS), a system that the UMCU has been using for ten years to store and manage radiology images. Cancer diagnosis and treatment both depend on the collective findings from pathology and radiology. Treating clinicians, surgeons, and oncologists, also require access to sufficient clinical data to be able to create useful and accurate reports. The common integrated PACS/pathology platform allows clinicians from the two specialties to collaborate, and share images, improving the speed and accuracy of diagnosis.

Paul van Diest, head of the UMCU pathology department, said, “By reviewing tissue and cells digitally, our workflow will become more efficient. We are no longer tied to that one workplace: the microscope. We can request the opinion of expert colleagues much more easily and can review cases faster when a patient is referred. With the use of computer technology, the pathologist has assistance in interpreting images, making the overall quality of diagnosis more reliable.”

Related Links:
Sectra
University Medical Center Utrecht