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The Digital Pathology Revolution: Breaking the Glass Ceiling

Among diagnostic specialties, anatomic pathology is the last holdout against the digital revolution. Pathologists still detect disease by looking at tissue samples on a glass slide through a microscope, just as they have done for a hundred years. But in the last couple of years, start-up companies have begun to break the bondage of pathologists to slides. Their solution: platforms for digitizing slides so they can be accessed through computer networks by clinicians anywhere in the world. Two start-ups, Aperio and BioImagene, have led the way and now all the big imaging manufacturers, the microscope companies and biomarker developers want in.

Digital pathology brings advantages in diagnostic speed and accuracy as well as workflow efficiencies, but the many pieces required for the technology to realize its full potential present a high development hurdle.

Among diagnostic specialties, anatomic pathology--the sub-specialty that detects disease by identifying morphologic features in tissue--is the last holdout against the digital revolution. Pathologists still hold to the time-worn tradition of looking at a glass slide under a microscope. But in the last couple of years, start-up companies have begun to break the bondage of pathologists to slides. Their solution: platforms for digitizing slides so they can be accessed through computer networks to clinicians anywhere in a hospital system--or in the world, for that matter. When slides are converted to a digital format, pathologists don’t have to wait for FedEx shipments of glass slides, collate them in trays, read them one at a time, or ship them somewhere else for a second opinion

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