Pathology 2.0 – Introduction to the UPMC Digital Pathology Consultation Service

A couple of loyal readers and friends passed along this mailer they received from UPMC.  As the opening line says, this should not come as a surprise to anyone. What I like is their willigness to support both static and whole slide images and other formats.  Gather they are not vendor specific on whole slide platform and will view and read many from many different systems.  Also, frozen section support forthcoming.

True ePathology consultation service from a leader in the field of pathology informatics, digital imaging and teleconsultation.  Many thanks to Drs. Michalopoulos, Yousem and Parwani for leading this service that will be used by many.  There are no substitutes in pathology for "same slide, same time" with trusted colleagues in managing cases.

As the leader in Pathology Informatics and telepathology for the last 20 years, it is not surprising that the Department of Pathology at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center should be one of the first to offer diagnostic consultations to the community of pathologists, utilizing an internet portal that will accept all forms of digital images from glass slides– static, whole slide, PowerPoint, or hand-held shots from your family Canon® camera. 

We have spent years developing such expertise and when you combine this skill set with our Center of Excellence subspecialty model of diagnostic sign-out and clinical service, we believe you will have a unique resource available to help solve complex diagnostic problems.  Our subspecialty pathologists feel comfortable handling all digital image files and have the ability, confidence, and expertise to offer you diagnoses with a rapid turn-over that can help you avoid the aggravation and costs of sending this material to Pittsburgh.  At the same time, if we are not 100% sure of our impressions, you can send the material to our consultation service using traditional “snail mail” or overnight express.  

For many generalists, accessing our subspecialty diagnosticians in Neuropathology, Transplant Pathology, Head and Neck Pathology, Pediatric and Perinatal Disease, Soft Tissue Pathology, Breast/Gynecologic Pathology and Inflammatory and Neoplastic Lung Disease, can help confirm the impressions of, or fine-tune the diagnoses of the generalist University or community pathologist who has rare or infrequent exposure to these specialized areas of pathology.

We look forward to engaging you in this new service.  We also plan, in the near future to, offer real-time consultation for your frozen section or emergency cases.  We also appreciate suggestions on how to improve our performance and on other services that you feel you need and that we could potentially provide.

We hope that you are satisfied with this consultation service and we look forward to establishing a long-term relationship with you.

Sincerely,

George Michalopoulos, MD, PhD
Chairman, Department of Pathology

Samuel A. Yousem, MD
Vice-Chairman, Anatomic Pathology Services
Department of Pathology

Anil Parwani, MD
Division Chief, Pathology Informatics
Department of Pathology