The world has changed by leaps and bounds with the introduction of digitization in every arena of life. Healthcare systems have yet to prove immune to these technological advancements. From medical consultations to diagnostic tools, digitization has increased the speed of delivering better healthcare. Among all medical departments, pathological diagnoses have derived maximum benefits with digitization.
From hastening diagnosis to making healthcare systems accessible, digital pathology has revolutionised healthcare systems significantly. More and more healthcare systems are seeing the promise of better healthcare with digital pathology systems. Due to this, the digital pathology market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 13.5% from 2023 to 2033. However, only some technological challenges remain.
What is Digital Pathology?
Digital pathology refers to converting glass slides to digital slides and replacing microscopes with computer monitors for tissue or cellular examination. Pathologists examine tissue or fluid samples using computer monitors to diagnose a condition. Because qualified pathologists are scarce worldwide, digital pathology has filled the void by enabling remote consultations and examinations.
Benefits of Digital Pathology in Healthcare
Increased Efficiency and Accuracy in Diagnosis:
Traditionally, pathologists observe tissue or fluid samples under microscopes for diagnosis. Human intervention is always subject to errors and discrepancies that may lead to incorrect or imperfect diagnoses.
However, digital pathology methods reduce human intervention as the samples are studied by computers and digital systems for consistency and accuracy. Measuring digital slides is more accurate. Pathologists can annotate slides for increased transparency and accuracy of reporting.
Faster Turnaround Time for Results:
One of the drawbacks inherent in the traditional pathological diagnosis is longer turnaround times. A doctor sends samples to be studied by a pathologist who has to examine many such models. Sending and receiving pathological samples of patients results in a loss of valuable time, leading to stretched turnaround times.
Turnaround time is often a few weeks in case of complex diagnoses like cancer. In the meantime, a patient's patient's condition may deteriorate, not allowing for early intervention. Moreover, long turnaround times subject a patient to a lot of anxiety.
In digital pathology, the samples are shared online through high-resolution images and videos. Pathologists can focus totally on diagnosis instead of worrying about logistics. Besides enabling faster results, rapid learning allows pathologists to become experts quickly.
Remote access to pathology images for consultations:
The need for pathologists has grown exponentially in the last few decades. However, there needs to be more expert pathologists to fulfil the demand. The USA has one pathologist for 72,777 people, while Africa has four pathologists per million population. So many hospitals and healthcare systems rely on consultations with fewer expert pathologists. In reverse, many pathologists travel to multiple locations to offer their services.
The time lost in travels, and the stress of consulting pathologists located remotely are serious problems. Given that the lives of patients are directly at stake due to delayed results, digital pathology has proved effective.
The study and consultations happen entirely online in digital pathology solutions. Remote availability anytime, anywhere eliminates waiting times. While pathologists can still travel, they can attend urgent talks without travelling. Connecting online is sufficient to exchange information and results.
Impact on Healthcare Industry
Improved Patient outcomes
Digital pathology reduces the time and effort involved in physical slide examinations. The whole team of healthcare specialists can focus on providing better healthcare rather than worrying about the management of glass slides and the availability of microscopes. Faster testing and diagnosis lead to early treatment interventions, potentially saving patients lives.
Personalised Treatment plans
Many conditions like cancer need personalised treatment plans for individual patients. However delivering customised treatment plans requires extensive biopsy and examinations of a patient's condition. Traditional pathological testing presents a barrier here. Prolonged diagnosis times coupled with room for error prove impractical for the increasing number of cases in day-to-day life.
However, testing digital slides comes with speed and accuracy. When additional information is required from other pathologists, sharing the digital slides between them becomes quick, leading to the targeted identification of a disease. Healthcare systems can develop personalised treatment plans on a mass scale at the speed achieved through digital pathology.
Cost Savings
Traditional pathology examinations require a massive investment in infrastructure. From glass slide microscopes to allocating exclusive spaces for laboratories and diagnosis, it is a hefty investment, especially for delivering treatments on scale.
In digital pathology, you only require computers with sufficient RAM and memory to store data and internet speeds to rapidly network with fellow pathologists and team members to diagnose a problem. As digitization eliminates massive infrastructure for accommodating physical equipment, it reduces costs.
Reduced Healthcare Disparities
Access to better healthcare in rural areas remains a dream even today. While the non-availability of doctors is one of the concerns, the lack of access to quality and fast diagnosis is one of the reasons for increased mortality in remote areas. Tuberculosis, Typhoid, and Cancer are turning out to be a death sentence.
Digital pathology is a boon in eliminating healthcare disparities. If a rural area requires pathological diagnosis, doctors can consult with experts over the internet, share the fluid samples for advanced diagnosis, and expect results in no time. Thus, digital pathology enables early treatment intervention and healthcare advice even in the remotest areas.
Better Educational Training
Acquiring knowledge requires the availability of data. A practical science like pathology involves the study of thousands of cases to gain expertise. Only digital pathology methods can help here. As the data is digitized, it is possible to store gigabytes without physical infrastructure. Educators have plenty of material for demonstrations and training.
Related reda - Digital Pathology Scanner: Improving Diagnosis and Collaboration
Future Developments and Possibilities
Integration of Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence refers to learning through data and producing relevant actions. The AI that has revolutionized almost all industries will also revolutionize the area of digital pathology. Though not a replacement for pathologists, artificial intelligence pathology diagnosis will boost the capabilities of a pathologist.
Many automatic tasks, such as identifying similar patterns, classifying cells, and grouping the slides based on instructions, are well within the framework of today's AI algorithms. Artificial intelligence pathology diagnosis works with the pathologist to screen thousands of images and make interim conclusions for pathologists to accept or reject.
AI algorithms can detect abnormal cells and tissue conditions and enable a pathologist to get expert opinion, which is otherwise difficult to do manually. Moreover, AI systems can study thousands of images daily without getting tired.
Advanced Analytics in Digital Pathology
As the glass slides are digitized, there is an infrastructure limitation on digital data storage. Imagine having to sift through many past cases by pathologists to diagnose a present cell or tissue specimen. It is humanly impossible when patients are at the mercy of early treatment.
As computers can store millions of data, it helps develop efficient AI algorithms. While pathologists can easily retrieve the data, it is one of the milestones to use predictive analytics. As the number of case studies increases, predictive analytics become more efficient in decision-making and, ultimately, an accurate diagnosis. Identifying a common condition is possible with predictive analytics without the intervention of a pathologist.
Telepathology and Teleconsultations
As mentioned, as digitization disrupts pathology interventions, the need for the physical presence of pathologists is eliminated. Doctors can electronically transmit the digital slides to remotely located pathologists for instant diagnosis. Telepathology enables primary diagnoses, teleconsultations for second opinion, and quality assurance. It also serves educational and research purposes.
Also read: Lung cancer pathology
Conclusion
Digital pathology has a promising place in healthcare systems. Despite challenges, the impact of digital pathology on healthcare systems is unprecedented. From improved patient outcomes serving educational purposes to making healthcare systems more accessible, we have come a long way.
Artificial intelligence, big data, and predictive analytics are set to play a crucial role in reinforcing pathologists' healthcare systems and capabilities. Every human has a right to better healthcare; a shift to digital pathology makes it even more necessary. Governments must incentivize healthcare systems to support the change to digital pathology. Transformation is bound to happen. But at what pace? We have to wait and see.
Also Read: Revolutionising Healthcare: Ayushman Bharat Health Account and Lab Integration
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