Next generation diagnostic pathology: use of digital pathology and artificial intelligence tools to augment a pathological diagnosis

Excerpt

Pathology is the study and diagnosis of disease through the examination of body tissue, which is typically fixed on glass slides and viewed under a microscope. Most medical diagnoses are made by pathologists, who, as consultants to physicians, are often referred to as “The Doctor’s Doctor”. In most labs around the world, pathology relies almost solely on glass slides to render a diagnosis. As such, initial diagnoses and subsequent second opinions are often delayed while waiting for the glass slide or specimen to be physically delivered to the appropriate pathologist and patient care may be suspended [1]. Diagnostic pathology is entering into an exciting time with the more widespread use of digital imaging in pathology, in particular, the development and deployment of whole slide imaging (WSI) technology [2]. WSI allows the scanning of entire glass slides, with an output of an image file that is a digitized reproduction of the glass slide with images that are of diagnostic quality [3, 4]. In addition, in the last 5 years we have witnessed an increasing use of machine learning (ML), deep learning (DL) and artificial intelligence (AI) tools making their way into healthcare as well as a diagnostic pathology workflow [5‐7]. Thus, the timing is right for a digital disruption to occur in diagnostic pathology. The purpose of this editorial is to introduce to the readers these new and innovative tools in the diagnostic workflow and provide opportunities to bring together a series of articles on digital pathology and artificial intelligence in the next few months. …