Digital & Computational Pathology - Medical Director / Pathologist, Eastern U.S. IHN

A medical professional from a U.S. IHN discusses their current usage and future plans for digital pathology. They primarily use digital pathology for frozen sections requiring expert consultation, FISH scanning, and cytology slides for pap smears. They also utilize CellVision technology for hematology. Low-volume tests are sent out to NeoGenomics for digital reading, which accounts for 10-15% of their digital pathology work. The hospital does not currently use AI algorithms for primary diagnosis but uses workflow efficiency tools for tasks like reading and reporting prostate biopsies. The stakeholder finds value in digital pathology in terms of time-savings, billing and reimbursement, and compliance and security. They expect that the average hospital system will adopt a semi-digital workflow, with potential growth in assisted biomarker identification and molecular pathology. They estimate spending around $100,000 on digital pathology this year, and they anticipate this spending to triple in five years. They estimate running around 3,000 slides with digital pathology this year, potentially tripling that number, as well, in five years. The stakeholder discusses their plans for the future, including acquiring new hospitals and implementing digital pathology. They believe that in five years, 25-30% of non-academic labs could use digital pathology. They express interest in using digital pathology for therapy selection but have skepticism about the adoption of AI biomarkers. The stakeholder highlights the need for specific billing codes and reimbursement models in the digital pathology market.