Philips and Alverno Partner on Digital Pathology to Enhance Diagnostic Efficiencies

In a first for digital pathology in the United States, an anatomic pathology laboratory has taken the leap to fully digitize their workload for work from several hospitals in Illinois and Indiana for more than 1.1 million slides and growing annually. Alverno Laboratories is one of the largest pathology laboratories in the Midwest and supports a number of hospitals in multiple healthcare systems (Disclaimer: Including my own hospital/healthcare system in Chicago. My hospital system and Alverno Laboratories are owned by the same parent corporation, Ascension Health, the largest Catholic hospital system in the U.S., with hospitals in 21 states and the District of Columbia, including ours, among the largest healthcare network in Illinois).

The goal will be to improve access to sub-specialists and improve turn around times. 

Large Midwest laboratory selects Philips IntelliSite Pathology Solution to further enhance efficiencies and quality of diagnostics for histology cases

Amsterdam, The Netherlands and Hammond, Ind. – Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA), a global leader in health technology, and Alverno Laboratories, a provider of high-quality diagnostic testing services, today announced that Alverno will fully implement digital pathology in its clinical laboratories. The laboratory network will use Philips IntelliSite Pathology Solution to assess and diagnose all clinical histology cases digitally, instead of using a microscope, with the aim of improving laboratory efficiency, quality, and patient safety.

Pathology plays a critical role in disease detection, particularly with cancer diagnosis. Suspicious tissue samples are investigated to determine if the tissue is malignant and consequently guides treatment decisions. As one of the largest pathology laboratories in the Midwest, Alverno manages 33 hospital laboratories and provides laboratory services to two freestanding emergency departments and thousands of physician offices and other clients. Alverno consults on more than 142,000 histological cases each year, which translates to more than 1,100,000 slides of human tissue. Currently, each of these slides needs to be prepared, analyzed through a microscope, diagnosed, reported and archived. Digitizing these images will ease collaboration across sites and help reduce costs.

“Alverno is committed to ensuring our patients and clinical colleagues receive the fastest, most effective and best-informed diagnoses possible by employing the latest technology innovations,” said Sam Terese, CEO of Alverno Laboratories. “Digital pathology enables enhanced cooperation and access to sub-specialists, helping us improve turnaround times and ultimately advancing our goal of saving lives.”

“The digitalization of pathology provides an opportunity to radically change the sector and remove daily obstacles that hinder pathologists via traditional microscopy,” said Marlon Thompson, General Manager of Philips Digital & Computational Pathology. “With digital pathology and the application of adaptive intelligence, we aim to help pathologists increase collaboration, boost efficiency and enable more accurate and precise diagnoses.”

Philips IntelliSite Pathology Solution is an automated digital pathology image creation, viewing, and management system comprising the Ultra Fast Scanner, the Image Management System and Display for clinical IVD use. This solution contains advanced software tools to manage the scanning, storage, presentation, reviewing, and sharing of images. By supporting the transition to digital workflows, Philips seeks to help pathology laboratories simplify access to histopathology information and implement more efficient workflows.

The Philips IntelliSite Pathology Solution is the first digital pathology solution marketed for primary diagnostic use in the U.S, for all FFPE surgical pathology slides, including H&E, special stains and immunohistochemistry.

To learn more about Philips IntelliSite Pathology Solution, visit this website and follow @Philips_Path.

To learn more about Alverno Laboratories, visit www.AlvernoLabs.com.

Source: Philips