DIGITAL PATHOLOGY
Accelerating towards digital: insights from the National Working Group
Adoption of digital pathology has the potential to transform histopathology services within the NHS, but a cohesive strategy is required to realise the full benefits nationwide. Source LDPath looks at digital adoption so far and previews key recommendations from a forthcoming white paper from a National Working Group for Digital Pathology.
Histopathology, often described as the hidden powerhouse of the healthcare system, plays a pivotal role in disease diagnosis and is the foundation of directing patient care pathways. The demand for histopathology services is increasing by approximately 4.5% each year,1
a growth rate that is outpacing
the NHS’s capacity to handle caseloads effectively. This surge is driven by an ageing population, rising incidences of complex diseases like cancer, and a shortage of reporting pathologists. Clinical expectations for rapid, accurate diagnostics continue to grow, underscoring the urgency for the NHS to improve its histopathology capabilities. In response, the NHS has prioritised the digital transformation of
histopathology as a critical step towards meeting the diagnostic demands of modern healthcare. Digital pathology has the potential to revolutionise diagnostic workflows by enabling faster more efficient diagnosis, supporting remote consultations and multidisciplinary meetings, and integrating seamlessly with electronic health records (EHRs).2 Moving to a national coordinated digital pathology infrastructure is widely recognised as foundational to addressing diagnostic backlogs, improving workflow efficiency, and delivering timely, clinically actionable results to patients, all within existing budget constraints. Strategic investment and deployment in digital pathology are essential to achieve these goals.
Evidence-based transformation Transitioning from traditional microscopy to digital solutions presents substantial benefits, including increased diagnostic accuracy, improved workflows, and faster reporting turnaround times. The digital shift also facilitates better collaboration among healthcare professionals, as digital images can be shared instantly, supporting remote consultations and multidisciplinary discussions. Evidence of these advantages can already be seen in both single-site and multi-site digital pathology deployments across the NHS. In March 2022, Source LDPath launched a milestone digital pathology integration with East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust (EKHUFT), successfully deploying a first- of-its-kind HL7 integration in the UK.3
This
integration later provided the foundation for a health economic assessment tool, enabling other NHS trusts to evaluate the potential impact of digital transformation within their departments – considering factors like financial savings, backlog reduction and patient life years saved over specified timeframes. Since this launch, several pathology networks have begun developing and aligning digitisation strategies both within individual hospitals and collectively across regions.
Digital maturity
Increasing demand for services means the NHS has prioritised the digital transformation of histopathology as a critical step towards meeting the diagnostic demands of modern healthcare.
WWW.PATHOLOGYINPRACTICE.COM DECEMBER 2024
Despite these successful deployments, scaling digital pathology nationwide presents challenges. The NHS is a vast
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