Digital-Pathology-Today Magpie Communications

We have a new feature on Digital pathology Today: a monthly recap of the biggest and latest industry developments with Imogen Fitt of Siginfy Research.

April was a huge month, and it seems the pace of innovation and new developments individual pathology is increasing at a breakneck speed.

This month's recap features updates on AI Co-development partnerships, FDA approvals, acquisitions as well as Imogen's thoughts on the recent USCAP meeting in Baltimore.

Imogen joined Signify Research in 2018 as part of the Healthcare IT team. During her tenure Imogen has completed studies on digital pathology, LabIT and the use of AI in drug development, expanding Signify Research’s diagnostics and life sciences business coverage.

In this episode we discuss the enterprise pathology platform and how it is so much more than image management. “It’s where work gets done and data lives,” according to Krishna Bala of Proscia. We discuss the components or steps involved in digital pathology workflow. How do we make it all seamless?
What is the appropriate level of pathologist involvement in the design and implementation of such systems? How can software engineers acquire domain expertise? What does integration mean and how can we incorporate exciting new AI tools into our daily practice? We discuss the benefits of an open platform and why our guest thinks this model will ultimately win out.
Krishna Bala is currently Sr. VP of Engineering at Proscia, a leading provider of digital and computational pathology solutions. In this role, he leads the development of Proscia's Concentriq enterprise pathology platform, which is used by leading life sciences organizations and top diagnostic laboratories. Krishna is an experienced healthcare technologist with more than 20 years of experience in software development, data engineering, and AI/Machine-Learning. He is also an entrepreneur with several successful exits including an IPO as CTO/Founder. Krishna has a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University in New York.

Today we dive into a field that hasn't existed until very recently - ethics in AI and digital pathology. What is ethics and how is it relevant in digital pathology? We all want to do the right thing, don't we? Maybe easier said than done? Do we even have a working definition of AI that people can agree on?
We discuss a framework for ethics, incorporating such principles as fairness and inclusiveness, transparency, and algorithmic bias to name a few. What are the risks of artificial intelligence for pathologists, either real or imagined?
Dr. Chhavi Chauhan is Director of Scientific Outreach at the American Society for Investigative Pathology, a Program Manager for the Women in AI Accelerate & Raise Program, and currently serves on the Boards for 8 different mission-driven organizations in the spheres of scholarly publishing, digital pathology, AI Ethics, & youth education.
She is a former biomedical researcher, expert scholarly communicator, and a sought-after mentor in the fields of scientific research, scholarly publishing, and AI Ethics, especially for women and minorities. She is a thought leader, a renowned international speaker, and a strong advocate for equitable and accessible healthcare.
She was named in the AI Makers 150 AI & Analytics Leaders & Influencers 2021 List, the 100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics 2022 list, the Top 100 Women of the Future 2023 List, and was listed as a Finalist for the AI in Researcher Award '23 from Women In AI.

Lisa-Jean Clifford is Chief Operating Officer and Chief Strategy Officer at Gestalt Diagnostics. We discuss parallels between pathology and radiology in their digital journeys, the steps involved in going digital, how to keep the various stakeholders engaged and enthusiastic. We posed the question: “ Have we finally made the business case for digital pathology?”
Lisa-Jean tells us about the user experience for pathologists in the digital environment and how many of her clients are having a faster more streamlined experience than with glass slides. We discuss the promise of new technologies in digital pathology and how in many ways, digital pathology is a fresh start for pathology.
For more than 2 decades, Lisa-Jean Clifford has been a noteworthy leader in the high-tech healthcare solutions space. Her passion for making a positive impact on the lives of patients through technology can be traced back to her tenure at McKesson and IDX, now GE Healthcare, where she served in vital business development and marketing roles and to Psyche Systems, an LIS solution provider, where she was the CEO for eleven years.
Now, recognized as an industry expert, she actively participates in numerous boards including the Association of Pathology Informatics and MLO’s Editorial Advisory Board. She is widely published in many top laboratory publications and noteworthy news sources, such as Forbes, CAPToday, Medical Laboratory Observer, and Health Data Management. Also, she is a highly sought-after speaker and focuses on delivering valuable content in critical areas such as lab automation including software and interoperability, digital pathology, AI in pathology, lab informatics, oncology, and women’s health.

This episode with Dr. Ken Bloom of Nucleai, we examine the beginnings of telepathology, which led to what we now know as digital pathology in the 1980s. We trace the journey to now, focusing on seminal events in the industry, such as computational pathology, computer-assisted image analysis, the development of CPT codes, the importance of the TCPC split, particularly in the reference lab setting,

We also discuss the democratization of immunohistochemistry in connection with digital pathology and touch on recent developments in the assessment of tumor heterogeneity, AI algorithms, and spatial analysis.

Additionally, we explore the role of pathologists in the era of precision medicine, and the potential for integration of pathology with radiology.

Dr. Kenneth J. Bloom is currently the head of pathology at Nucleai. He has more than 35 years of clinical experience in pathology, oncology, telemedicine, and bioinformatics. Dr. Bloom previously served as the Chief Medical Officer at Invicro and Ambry Genetics. He was also President and Head of Oncology and Immunotherapy for Human Longevity Inc.

He played an instrumental role in designing the business strategy that grew Clarient from a startup with no revenue to its acquisition by GE. He oversaw the development of hundreds of laboratory-developed tests, including those using IHC, ISH, Flow Cytometry, and Molecular methods.

Dr. Bloom spent 15 years at Rush Medical College, where he held various titles, including Director of Laboratory Operations and Chief Information Officer of the Rush Cancer Institute

We know that there are certain tasks pathologists are often not very good at or may prefer not to do, such as counting cells or estimating tumor volume. Why not free them up from these tasks and allow them to focus on other areas where they can add more value?
As technology accelerates and drug discovery quickens, there are more and more studies being conducted and fewer pathologists available to participate. What if we could automate some of these processes to alleviate the burden on pathologists?
At the heart of clinical research, particularly in oncology, is the patient specimen, usually in the form of a paraffin block. What if we could reimagine the way we unlock the precious DNA and RNA from the paraffin block? What if researchers could view digital images of HD sections and select ones that meet their precise needs for a study before the blocks even arrive in their lab, getting exactly what they want and saving months of effort?
Jon Wetzel, COO of Trimetis, is a researcher at heart, with over 24 years of experience in the life sciences and 20 years of management in startup biotech companies. He has created several companies, most recently co-founding FoundationBio, which is now part of TriMetis. Jon has served in academia and senior roles in the industry with the University of Michigan, UCLA, Genelogic, Rosetta Inpharmatics, Asterand, and AdeptBio. Jon holds several certifications from the University of Michigan for Lean and Six Sigma and is a Certified Six Sigma Black Belt.
We discuss computer-assisted pathology and the suite of software tools that Jon and the team at TriMetis have been developing to accelerate progress in the biospecimen and tissue-based research field.