Swedish Healthcare Provider Adopts Digital Pathology

Västerbotten County Council has a total of approximately 250,000 residents, and together with Jämtland Härjedalen, performs 35,000 pathology examinations and 34,000 cytology examinations annually.

The digital pathology solution will be integrated both with Västerbotten County Council’s existing scanners that digitize tissue samples and its associated IT infrastructure for handling patient information.

“Västerbotten County Council is a good example of the type of healthcare providers that are among the first to adopt digital pathology in the market. They are a geographically distributed region and as such can see an interesting business case for going fully digital in pathology by being able to share digital images rather than sending physical glass slides,” says Dr. Torbjörn Kronander, President and CEO of Sectra.

Why digital pathology?
Pathology departments analyze tissue samples and bodily fluids to identify the reasons for a patient’s symptoms. The results provide guidance for the diagnosis, follow-up, and treatment of various diseases. There is an acute shortage of pathologists, while at the same time, an aging population and more specialized diagnostics are leading to increasing volumes and demands for more-detailed reports. Digitizing tissue samples could lead to shorter wait times, more-accurate diagnoses, and a more-efficient use of resources.

Sectra’s digital pathology solution
Sectra’s digital pathology solution is built on the same platform as Sectra’s solution for handling radiology images (Sectra PACS), which is already in use at the radiology and mammography department at Västerbotten County Council. This enables in-depth collaboration between radiologists and pathologists, two of the key players in effective cancer care. It also facilitates multidisciplinary team meetings, which are part of integrated diagnostics. In addition, using a common platform will lead to reduced maintenance and operating costs. Sectra offers a complete solution for primary diagnostics that includes storage solutions and an advanced review workstation. In the US, digital pathology for primary diagnostics is still pending FDA approval.

Read more about digitization of pathology used by existing customers