Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust/University of Leeds has successfully transitioned its first subspeciality pathology services to fully digital reads, instead of microscopes. This conversion represents a key step in their partnership with Leica Biosystems. The Leeds team is now reporting over 99 percent of their cases using digital pathology, only reverting to microscopes for exceptional cases.
“The positive feedback on digital from our pathologists has been overwhelming,” said Consultant Pathologist and Head of Leeds Digital Pathology Group, Dr. Darren Treanor. “In our initial group, we had both self-declared digital enthusiasts and sceptics. Following the validation, they have transitioned to using digital pathology over traditional microscopy, commenting on the speed and accuracy of tissue measurements, as well as faster access to slides.”
“The results from Leeds demonstrate the advantages of mainstream adoption of digital pathology,” stated Jerome Clavel, Vice President and General Manager of Leica Biosystems Pathology Imaging Business. Our comprehensive digital pathology solutions enable customers in countries where labelling includes clinical IVD use to streamline the diagnosis process in a cost-effective manner. This can help anxious patients to get a diagnosis faster.”
“We decided to embark on full adoption of digital pathology by validating our subspecialities in sequence,” said Dr. Bethany Williams, Digital Pathology Fellow at Leeds Hospital. “We are on track to go fully digital with all immunohistochemistry (IHC) by the end of 2017. At the end of 2018, the entire department will be 100 percent digital.”
