Digital Pathology

Digital Pathology, also referred to as Telepathology and Whole Slide Imaging (W.S.I.), is the process of producing high resolution digital images from tissue sections on glass slides, and subsequent evaluation. These glass slides are normally examined under a microscope by a pathologist as part of the diagnostic process. The emergence of digital pathology now means that digital images are stored on secure servers and can be viewed on computer monitors; enabling pathologists to work remotely and to collaborate with other colleagues and/or when second opinions are needed.

We have been following the developments of Digital Pathology over the recent years, and it seemed good for peer review and/or educational purpose (e.g. Academic Hospitals, large CROs) of limited number of slides, and long-distance tele-communication. In the past, next to conventional light microscopy, also peer review was done faster in a conventional way by reviewing the glass slides. In addition, in the past there were sometimes problems with proper scanning of every slide which was time consuming.Nowadays, however, the quality of images generated by using Digital Pathology is as good as conventional review of slides for all organ systems using digital pathology. The UMCU Academic hospital in Utrecht, The Netherlands was one of the the first hospitals world-wide going fully digital in pathology with a future-proof complete digital archive (2015).During and after this time, scan speed, resolution and quality of scans from glass slides (W.S.I.) have been markedly improved. In recent years, substantial increased amount of W.S.I. validation literature is published on this subject. For both in clinical pathology (human) and pre-clinical veterinary pathology practices, things have improved significantly with demonstration of excellent diagnostic concordance between W.S.I. and conventional microscopy. Nowadays, the application of Digital Pathology, when well performed, can match equally with conventional light microscopy in toxicologic pathology for the safety evaluation in toxicology studies in the development of new vaccines, medicines and chemicals.