Update on the current opinion, status and future development of digital pathology in Switzerland in light of COVID-19

Abstract

AimsThe transition from analogue to digital pathology (DP) in Switzerland has coincided with the COVID-19 crisis. The Swiss Digital Pathology Consortium conducted a national survey to assess the experience of pathologists in dealing with the challenges of the pandemic and how this has influenced the outlook and adoption of DP.MethodsA survey containing 20 questions relating to DP, personal experiences and challenges during the pandemic was addressed to Swiss pathologists at different experience stages in private practice, community and university hospitals.ResultsAll 74 respondents were pathologists, with 81.1% reporting more than 5 years of diagnostic service experience. 32.5% reported having read 100 digital slides or more in a diagnostic context. 39.2% reported using whole slide imaging systems at their primary workplace. Key DP use cases before the COVID-19 lockdown were tumour boards (39.2%), education (60.8%) and research (44.6%), with DP used for primary diagnosis in 13.5%. During the COVID-19 crisis, the use of DP for primary diagnostics more than doubled (30% vs 13.5%), with internal consults as important drivers (22.5% vs 16.5%), while research use (25% vs 44.6%) and external consults (17.5% vs 41.9%) strongly decreased. Key challenges identified included a lack of established standard operating procedures and availability of specialised hardware and software.ConclusionsThis survey indicates that the crisis acted as a catalyst in promoting DP adoption in centres where basic workflows were already established while posing major technical and organisational challenges in institutions that were at an early stage of DP implementation.

Digital pathology – Rising to the challenge

“…Inevitably, the importance of digital pathology has risen significantly, leading to increased use digital pathology in daily routine. Unsurprisingly, a more recent poll of Swiss pathologists at the height of the pandemic revealed the use of digital pathology for primary routine diagnostics had more than doubled since onset of the pandemic (30 vs. 13.5%) (12).…”

Towards a national strategy for digital pathology in Switzerland

“…In that light, a number of university and public hospitals have already begun the digital transformation, in total having scanned well over a million slides, at an increasing rate of over 50k slides per year [ 4 , 5 ]. SDPI will further extend this process, while imparting a consolidated interface for interaction with this data by researchers.…”

“…In Switzerland, and inclusive of a broader view in the European Union, there is an emerging opportunity to develop a unified national DP network consisting of both public and private institutions [ 4 , 5 ]. Each site could contribute digital slides in synergy with existing roadmaps for digitalization (Fig.…”

Types and frequency of whole slide imaging scan failures in a clinical high throughput digital pathology scanning laboratory

“… 6 , 7 As the pathogen terraformed the global topography of clinical practice, shifting practitioner attitudes favoring WSI adoption for a litany of use cases lay in its wake. 5 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 A concurrently dynamic regulatory environment, e.g., US-government sanctioned “enforcement discretion” of CLIA regulations, allowed a restrictive laxity for remote sign out accelerating WSI adoption for primary diagnosis. 5 , 6 , 11 The US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) granted clearance for medical marketing of the second WSI scanning system for primary diagnoses in surgical pathology following the Philips IntelliSite Pathology Solution™ in 2017 after affirming diagnostic concordance with glass slides and scanning reproducibility.…”