In case you missed this at CAP --

Ventana Medical Systems, Inc. (Ventana), a member of the Roche Group, unveiled the VENTANA iScan HT slide scanner prototype before a packed audience at the 2011 College of American Pathologists (CAP) annual meeting.

The VENTANA iScan HT slide scanner holds up to 360 slides and offers unprecedented performance. The new brightfield scanner incorporates cutting-edge focus, optical and slide-handling technologies and will bring to market the highest-throughput digital pathology scanner.  The scanner's rich feature set will help usher in a new era of operational efficiencies for anatomic pathology laboratories. Some of these include:

1. A dynamic focusing method that results in very fast scan speeds producing high quality images.  
2. A best-in-class slide transport system provides improved reliability and safe handling of slides.
3. Random access support by decoupling slide loading and slide scanning as well as an immediate STAT override feature.
4. Worklist management improves laboratory workflow optimization.

Steve Burnell, PhD, Lifecycle Leader for Advanced Workflow commented, "The VENTANA iScan HT slide scanner takes the speed of scanning and the image viewing experience to exceptional levels. Our customers have inspired us to create a digital pathology product that surpasses the industry standard.  The VENTANA iScan HT slide scanner leverages Ventana's expertise in industry-leading staining platforms, assays, and workflow solutions, to deliver unprecedented performance in digital pathology."

Ventana provides a complete suite of digital pathology solutions including the iScan Coreo Au slide scanner, the VENTANA iScan HT slide scanner, and the Virtuoso workflow management software. The iScan Coreo Au slide scanner is the ideal choice for low to mid-volume pathology laboratories and labs interested in niche applications such as frozen sections and education. The VENTANA iScan HT slide scanner is the best choice for the high-volume pathology laboratories. Both the iScan Coreo Au slide scanner and VENTANA iScan HT slide scanner are integrated with Virtuoso for workflow management software functionality from image acquisition through reporting.  

Courtesy of PR Newswire

Webinar offered by CAP PHC

Wednesday, October 12, 2011 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM CDT

Link to register https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/605418625

There is increasing interest in using whole slide imaging (WSI) for diagnostic purposes in pathology. An important question is whether WSI can replace conventional light microscopy as the method by which pathologists review histologic sections and/or cytology slides to render diagnoses. Validation of WSI is crucial to ensure that diagnostic performance based on digitized slides is at least equivalent to that of glass slides and light microscopy. Currently, there are no standardized guidelines regarding validation of WSI for diagnostic use. Therefore, the CAP Pathology and Laboratory Quality Center convened a non-vendor panel from North America with expertise in digital pathology in order to develop recommendations for validating WSI systems for this purpose. Data sources for these recommendations were derived from panel consensus and an extensive literature review from the past 10 years.

The 13 statements formulated by the panel were available for public review and this webinar will cover the background rationale and supporting data used to develop these recommendations. The public response to each of these statements will be shared and contentious issues raised will be discussed. The final result of this effort is intended to improve the clinical use of WSI technology in pathology by providing assurance that these digital tools are being properly used for their intended clinical use, thereby reducing the potential risk of misdiagnosis attributed to this technology.

Presented by Liron Pantanowitz MD, FCAP

Link to register https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/605418625

Pathologists across the globe will be interested to learn that the pathological-anatomical collection of the famous Doctor Rudolph Virchow, housed for almost 100 years in Berlin, may soon be closed to public viewing. Administrators at Berlin’s Charité Hospital are threatening to shut down what is often recognized as the world’s first pathology museum.

Read entire story at Dark Daily.

DigiPath is seeking independent thinking, self motivated, and successful sales resources to lead the adoption of digital pathology worldwide.  With a base salary, customary benefits, and substantial stock grant, this position’s earnings will exceed $250,000 at 100% sales quota attainment. 

15 positions are available today. DigiPath, Inc. provides the next generation of affordable, innovative, and reliable digital pathology solutions.  Recently, DigiPath announced its PathScope, a $24,999 digital pathology slide scanning system. 

Combining PathScope with PathCloud, a dedicated Tier 1 digital pathology network, DigiPath offers the most affordable, innovative, and reliable solution worldwide. Job requirements include 1) pathology understanding; 2) previous sales success; and 3) motivation to earn money. Locations for consideration are anywhere in USA.

See more details at http://www.digipath.biz.  Send your CV for consideration to info@digipath.biz.

Albuquerque, New Mexico   09/21/2011 – Indica Labs, Inc. announces the official release of its advanced histology analysis software for metabolic research.   Developed in collaboration with two major pharmaceutical companies, the computer software algorithms provide diabetes and metabolic researchers with quantitative data relating to pancreatic islets, alpha cells, beta cells, delta cells, and other islet cell types.  Using the new tool, pathologists and pharmacologists can automate the otherwise laborious tasks of counting and measuring individual islets, or counting and classifying islet cells. 

Not only does the software improve efficiency, it also provides additional quantitative data that is otherwise unattainable by manual assessment.   It measures a wide variety of immunohistochemical positivity in islet cells, including nuclear positivity, cytoplasmic positivity, proliferation indices, and more.  The tool also generates histograms representing the islet size distribution allowing researchers to measure and quantify the number of small budding islets, and assess the cellular makeup of those islets. 

Indica Labs, CEO Steven Hashagen stated:

“We are thrilled to announce the release of our pancreatic tissue analysis software.  This software has already proven to automate many of the laborious tasks involved with metabolic research at several large pharmaceutical companies and the feedback we’ve received from the initial users has been tremendously positive.  Needless to say, we are delighted that our products can contribute to the important fields of diabetes and metabolic research.”

This software is just one of a long list of tools being developed by Indica Labs that are focused on organ-specific or disease-specific applications including a wide variety of tumor types, adipose tissue, muscle fiber, hepatic steatosis, pancreas, and many more.  All Indica software can be used on individual images captured using a traditional microscope or on larger full specimen images that have been captured using leading whole-slide scanning instruments.  For more information about this product, visit http://indicalab.com/product-islet.html, or contact info@indicalab.com to schedule a complementary demonstration.

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About Indica Labs, Inc. 

Indica Labs provides sophisticated pathology image processing software for whole slide tissue analysis.  Indica Labs' software tools seamlessly integrate into leading digital pathology platforms to provide reproducible and highly quantitative data to pathologists in hospitals, academic medical centers, government research institutions, global pharmaceutical companies, and small biotech firms.  For more information, please visit http://www.indicalab.com.  Indica Labs products are intended for research use only.

Contact

Indica Labs, Inc. info@indicalab.com