Digital Pathology Consultants LLC (DPC) and BioInformatics LLC announced today a partnership to provide digital pathology companies unprecedented market insight about their customers, products, and brand.

Broomfield, CO (PRWEB) May 26, 2011

Digital Pathology Consultants LLC (DPC) and BioInformatics LLC announced today a partnership to provide digital pathology companies unprecedented market insight about their customers, products, and brand.

BioInformatics LLC has served the life science, medical device, and pharmaceutical industries for the past 17 years as a leading market research and advisory firm. Digital Pathology Consultants, a premier consulting firm, is a trusted advisor to the digital pathology industry, healthcare, and pharmaceutical markets. The collaboration between DPC and BioInformatics LLC combines extensive industry knowledge with an accomplished team of market research experts to provide digital pathology companies with the vital market information necessary to grow their business and remain competitive.

Amanda Lowe, President of Digital Pathology Consultants said, “We are excited to work with BioInformatics LLC, an excellent firm with an outstanding track record. Their skilled staff of experts will provide my clients with the right information to make good business decisions.”

Bill Kelly, President of BioInformatics LLC, said, “In order to provide comprehensive solutions to leading medical technology companies, advisory firms must respond in a collaborative, innovative way. We are excited to join forces with Digital Pathology Consultants, an organization that brings a deep knowledge of the digital pathology industry and an understanding of best practices to each engagement.”

In 1997, BioInformatics LLC established a professional online community, The Science Advisory Board, which has grown in number to over 60,000 scientific consumers. Members network on this social media platform to voice opinions, share protocols and collaborate with colleagues around the world. According to Kelly, “Over the past year, we have been actively recruiting scientists in the pathology and molecular diagnostics fields to our online panel in anticipation of continued growth in these markets.” Members agree to participate in market research surveys and focus groups, which will be a valuable resource to Digital Pathology Consultants and will support our collaborative efforts to reach out to scientists in the digital pathology industry.    

About Digital Pathology Consultants, LLC
Digital Pathology Consultants, founded by Amanda Lowe, is a leading provider of digital pathology consultation services. Our services assist businesses, and medical and biopharma professionals with market research, business planning, and step-by-step through the selection, implementation, and validation of digital pathology solutions. Knowledge, trust, and an open exchange forum shape the foundation of Digital Pathology Consultants. Delivering results is our promise, exceeding your expectations is our guarantee.

About BioInformatics LLC
BioInformatics LLC, is the premier research and advisory firm serving the life science industry.  By leveraging our professional social network of more than 60,000 life scientists, we have supported more than 300 companies and provided insights that lead to better business decisions.  Our assignments include assessing the size and attractiveness of markets, optimizing product configurations and pricing, validating corporate acquisitions, measuring customer loyalty, and evaluating brand strength and positioning.

There is probably no other pathologist who is responsible for scanning more slides and using digital pathology to enhance both their laboratory operation as well that of hundreds of other laboratories other than Dr. Ken Bloom.  From ACIS to Virtual IHC and years of experience prior to whole slide with remote telepathology, Ken has seen it all but more importantly has been successful at clinical business models that increase productivity, decrease turn around time and enhance patient care.

FREE PHC Webinar Courtesy of College of American Pathologists

Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Noon – 1:00 PM Central
Speaker: Kenneth J. Bloom, MD, FCAP

Once digital images are produced from glass slides, sharing of the digital images for a variety of purposes is facilitated, including expert review or consultation in a single multi-site practice setting, between practice groups, and potentially international primary diagnosis or consultation. The use of digital images can improve workflow by eliminating the need to physically distribute glass slides, and by allowing digital images to be distributed to experts at remote locations from the histology laboratory site. Stored digital images can be retrieved more easily than glass slides for previous slide review, clinical interdisciplinary conferences, research and publication. The improved work flow can increase productivity, decrease turn-around times and improve patient care. Digital image analysis software development has the potential to provide methods for quality assurance in slide review and to allow quantitative analysis of immunohistochemical staining intensity and location, and even image comparisons to archived previously diagnosed images. More importantly, unchaining the pathologist from the microscope will open a plethora of slide-based technologies to the pathologist, that will likely transform the practice of pathology and significantly improve patient care. This webinar will discuss the potential clinical application areas for WSI.

REGISTER NOW!

More Than 45 Customer Presentations Highlighted Research and Technologies that are Revolutionizing Healthcare

Dates of Upcoming Owners Group Meetings Set for June 10, 2011 in Alameda, California and September 14-15 in London, UK

HOPKINTON, Mass., June 1, 2011 -- Caliper Life Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: CALP), a leading provider of tools and services for drug discovery and life sciences research, hosted its 2011 annual Customers Owners Group (COG 2011) meeting on May 17 and 18 at its Hopkinton headquarters. This thought-leadership conference brought together leaders in research, drug discovery, and diagnostics to discuss the technologies and discoveries that are transforming the detection and treatment of disease, and making personalized medicine a reality. More than 350 customers attended the event, which featured 45 presentations from researchers representing life sciences companies and institutions. 

“COG 2011 was a tremendous congress, with presentation tracks focused on next generation sequencing, imaging & pathology, biomarkers discovery, molecular diagnostics, biologics & vaccines, and targeted small molecules, each of which is a critical enabling theme for personalized medicine. A key message from the meeting was the clear need for technological innovations in these areas that can enable the precision diagnostics and therapeutics that are required to achieve the vision of personalized medicine,” said Kevin Hrusovsky, President and CEO of Caliper Life Sciences. “This event highlighted Caliper’s focus on innovation, collaboration, and culture as key cornerstones that define our efforts to extend and improve the quality of life and to truly place the patient first in the practice of medicine. Throughout the event, it was our privilege to motivate and provide inspiration to leading researchers from industry and academia, while also demonstrating how our technologies are having a profound impact on research applications.”

“One of the main reasons I am here today is the important collaborations between academy and industry are going to drive this revolution. We are in an era of technology-driven medicine,” said Dennis Ausiello, M.D., Chief of Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, Chief Scientific Officer of Partners Healthcare, and member of the Board of Directors of Pfizer and the Broad Institute, while delivering his keynote presentation about the advancements in research and technologies that will transform medicine. Dr. Ausiello cited specific examples where gene expression and sequencing technologies have improved the quality of patient care. “I am inspired personally by both the approach and the vision that Caliper has in helping deliver this revolution.” 

Additional keynote presentations were provided by Go van Dam, M.D., Ph.D., the pioneering surgeon and Associate Professor at University Medical Center Groningen, who presented on the innovative clinical application of optical imaging and biomarker detection technologies during surgical procedures to significantly improve a patient’s prognosis, and by Stephan Schuster, Ph.D., Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Pennsylvania State University and project leader for the South African Genome Project and the Wooly Mammoth Genome Project, who described the use of next generation sequencing to explore evolutionary diversity within mankind and of extinct and near-extinct organisms. 

Caliper’s vision for personalized medicine includes several enabling technology themes that will revolutionize the practice of healthcare in the near future. Caliper’s COG events are organized into tracks that are closely aligned to these revolutionary themes: next generation sequencing, imaging and pathology, biomarkers discovery, molecular diagnostics, biologics and vaccines, and targeted small molecules. Caliper extended its COG series, with upcoming events in Alameda, CA, USA on June 10, 2011 and in London, UK on September 14 and 15, 2011. For more details, and for presentations from previous COG events, please visit http://caliperls.com/support/caliperowners-group.htm.

About Caliper Life Sciences
Caliper Life Sciences is a premier provider of cutting-edge technologies enabling researchers in the life sciences industry to create life-saving and enhancing medicines and diagnostic tests more quickly and efficiently. Caliper is aggressively innovating new technology to bridge the gap between in vitro assays and in vivo results, enabling the translation of those results into cures for human disease. Caliper’s portfolio of offerings includes state-of-the-art microfluidics, lab automation and liquid handling, optical imaging technologies, and discovery and development outsourcing solutions. For more information please visit www.caliperLS.com.

More changes at Aperio.  As the below PR mentions, Mr. Bologna's appointment follows another board appointment last week (Mr. Scholotterbeck).  Aperio seems to be focusing increasingly on their clinical customers building on having a CMO, GM of Healthcare and a larger board presence with clinical market expertise.

VISTA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Aperio, the global leader in providing digital pathology solutions that improve patient care, today announced that it has appointed Thomas Bologna, President & Chief Executive Officer of Orchid Cellmark, Inc. (NASDAQ:ORCH - News), a leading service provider of DNA identity testing, to its Board of Directors. Last week, Aperio announced that healthcare veteran David Schlotterbeck had also joined its Board.

“Tom has created a tremendous legacy building and leading highly profitable, publicly held and venture-backed healthcare companies, and we are very fortunate to have him join our Board,” said Dirk G. Soenksen, Chairman and CEO of Aperio. “Tom’s strong operational experience in scaling companies and his deep domain knowledge in the diagnostics market in particular will strengthen Aperio’s ability to seize new opportunities in the dynamic digital pathology market.”

“Digital pathology is rapidly gaining momentum as a proven technology that is helping to reduce laboratory expenses, improve operational efficiencies, and significantly enhance patient care,” noted Bologna. “Aperio is in an excellent position to strengthen its lead in this growing market and I’m thrilled to be joining the company at this time.”

Prior to joining Orchid Cellmark, Bologna was Chief Executive Officer of Quorex Pharmaceuticals, a venture-backed company acquired by Pfizer Inc., and Ostex International, Inc. (NASDAQ:OSTX - News). Previously, he was Chief Executive Officer of Gen-Probe, a global leader in the development, manufacture and marketing of molecular diagnostics products and services, where he scaled the Company, took it public on NASDAQ and subsequently sold to Chugai Pharmaceutical Co. Bologna’s prior experience also includes senior-level positions with Becton Dickinson Diagnostic Systems, where he led the commercialization effort for the Company’s automated microbiology line.

This appointment represents a continued enhancement of Aperio’s leadership team. Recent additions include Keith Hagen as COO, Jared Schwartz, MD, PhD, as CMO, Patrick Yount as CFO, and Steven Russell as General Manager of Healthcare.

Job Description

The Principal Pathologist is responsible for managing the clinical operations and the medical office of the company. The Principal Pathologist oversees the clinical division involved in validation of imaging applications, including oversight of studies leading to FDA 510(k) and PMA filings. The Principal Pathologist is a member of the Sunnyvale Management Team and will be jointly responsible for managing clinical collaborations for the company, including those with academic medical centers and reference laboratories. The Principal Pathologist develops research programs with key opinion leaders at these sites and works with internal business development along with R&D to execute these programs. The Principal Pathologist works closely with multiple other functions and groups, including Marketing, R&D, Quality and Regulatory to develop and review new products and applications as well as enhancing and refining existing products and applications and customer support for pathologist-related issues. The Principal Pathologist supervises the pathology requirements of the company, including image/slide review, test scoring, algorithm testing, algorithm validation, and application testing. Importantly, he or she will also represent Ventanas vision from a medical value and digital pathology perspective via preparation of abstracts and review articles, in meetings with external visiting pathologists, attend relevant scientific symposia, external pathology meetings and conferences.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS:
- Oversight of FDA studies and filings
- Management of clinical collaborations
- Product/Application development and review
- Pathology supervision, including slide review/validation, tissue procurement, and application testing
- Presentations and Conference attendance
- Remain up to date on pathology, oncology and molecular biology literature related to Ventana's assay and imaging businesses
- Preparation of abstracts and peer reviewed publications
- Sales and Marketing support
- Customer support for pathologist-related issues

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:

Formal Training/Education:
- M.D. Pathologist with American Board of pathology anatomic pathology board certification

Experience:
- 5+ years of pathology training and practice
- 5+ years experience in biomedical research (PhD or other degree) or biotech/pharma industry

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:
- Diagnostic pathology
- Advanced staining and diagnostic methods including immunohistochemistry and in situ hybridization
- Familiarity with, and interest in, personalized medicine and companion diagnostics.
- Biomedical research and development
- Clinical study design
- FDA filings
- Demonstrated record of accomplishments (e.g. publications in scientific journals, issued US patents).
- Scientific writing and presentations
- Management experience
- Medical Informatics

Laboratories engaged in direct patient care have at their disposal huge amounts of health care information related to both screening and diagnostic tests. 

When it is time for your 6 month dental check up you receive a card or more recently electronic reminder that your appointment you made 6 months ago is approaching or you need to call the office and schedule one.  My ophthalmologist provides a similar service with reminders for routine visits.  

Imagine the laboratory notifying you that "Mrs. Jones it has been 1 year since your last pap smear according to our records.  It may be time to visit your health care provider (like this universal term now) for your annual examination and pap smear (this may not go along with recommendations the provider follows -- need to think this one through). The intent of course, much like the dentist or ophthalmologist, that you choose the same provider and he/she chooses your laboratory.  

What about the pathology laboratory sending you a letter about 12 months after you had some atypical nevi removed that were examined by your laboratory that it may be time for another "skin check" by of course "your health care provider".  It won't necessarily say that it may be time to see Dr. Jones at Jones Dermatology but why not?  Particularly if Dr. Jones is still a client of yours.  Presumably Dr. Jones sent out a reminder as well but you know what could happen to those small cards that get mixed in with all the other mail.  

Ditto for cholesterol or glucose tests.  For example. "Ms. Smith, Our laboratory performed blood tests for you about three years ago.  We noticed that you have not had any subsequent testing.  May we suggest it may be an appropriate time to consult with your health care provider for a full physical examination and routine blood work that may be required".  

It is starting to sound like a drug ad -- "Call your doctor".  

By the way, have you ever tried to call your doctor.  I spend some of my days calling back results to referring physicians.  "Call the doctor" or "Notify the referring physician of abnormal results" is not as easy as it sounds.  Without fail, you call the wrong office as they are at the "other" office.  Again without fail, the office staff knows they are not at that office, but can't find the number for the other office.  Or a pager.  Or cell phone number.  The directory of physician listings has not been updated since President Bush's administration (the first Bush) and the other office isn't even in the listings. Once you make contact with the correct office you find out they have left for the hospital or other office...

Anyways, laboratories have at their disposal huge amounts of health maintenance data that is one of the keys being discussed with electronic medical records (EMRs), health information exchanges (HIEs) and accountable care organizations (ACOs). 

Laboratories could provide one of the necessary portals and sources of key data for continuity of care whether it is a screening colonoscopy or mammography (assuming their is biopsy material to record), pap smears or serum chemistries or cholesterol testing.  Ditto for drug levels for organ transplant patients lost to follow up.

The lab has the data to mine. Issues about self-referral, lack of patient-physician (health care provider) relationship and potentially unnecessary testing abuses would have to be worked out.  

I think with EMRs, HIEs and ACOs on the horizon, the laboratory should be one of the key organizations considered as potential gatekeepers and data keepers for patient management and outcomes.

In doing so we may be able to lose the term "lost to follow-up".

With our unique managed service model, the experts at i-Path take care of all your digital pathology needs.

i-Path has devised a model which will allow anyone to take the first step to using digital pathology quickly, easily and cost efficiently.

This managed service model works on a project by project basis, you are not tied into an annual contract, simply call us as a project comes up. There is no need for large capital investment or staff training.

Send your slides to i-Path where experts will scan your slides at your desired magnification and QC all slides.

• Analysis of the whole digital slide is performed using our proprietary tissue measurement or tumour measurement algorithms.
• i-Path can also work with you to create bespoke algorithms which can be used to analyse the whole digital slide or regions defined by you.
• A comprehensive report will be generated giving full results of the study.

Simply Contact Us with your needs and we can get your project started.

Courtesy of CAP:

CAP@YourService – June

Couple of nice quick reads from Advance for Administrators of the Laboratory written by industry experts:

Converting to Digital Pathology

Get The Most Out of LIS Demonstrations

Nice white paper summary from Ventana on Practical Considerations While Implementing a Digital Pathology Solution: 

Digital Pathology Consultants introduces a new webinar "The New World of Laboratory Medicine" presented by Richard Friedberg MD, PhD on May 23, 2011 at 3 PM EST / 12 PM PST, supported by our sponsors at http://www.thedigitalpathologywiki.com.

Description

To thrive in highly competitive markets, clinical laboratories need to look beyond traditional models of service delivery and begin to think outside the box. This may mean integrating with other diagnostic services and delivering different types of results, from laboratory to imaging, to physicians and other clients. This webinar, presented by Richard Friedberg MD, PhD, will explore how lab medicine has changed and is likely to evolve in the coming years and how you can position yourself for the future.

About Richard Friedberg MD, PhD

Chairman, Department of Pathology, Baystate Health, Springfield, MA

Medical Director at Baystate Reference Laboratories

Professor and Deputy Chairman, Department of Pathology, Tufts University School of Medicine

In 2007 and again in 2010, Dr. Friedberg was elected to the Board of Governors of the College of American Pathologists, where he also serves on the Council on Accreditation (vice-Chair) and Council of Government & Professional Affairs (Executive Committee), as well as CAP committees such as Strategy Management (Chair) and Finance. Dr. Friedberg holds a BS with Honors from Stanford University, an MD from Duke University, a PhD in coagulation biochemistry from Duke University, and a Master’s (SM) in Health Care Management from Harvard University. He is a Certified Physician Executive (CPE) by the American College of Physician Executives.

To register visit: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/557090784

Albuquerque, New Mexico 5/12/2011 – Indica Labs, Inc. receives an initial round of seed funding to begin product development of a series of image analysis tools for digital pathology. The venture backed company will immediately begin development operations in the Albuquerque, New Mexico area.

Traditional pathology methods typically involve manual assessment of glass slides under a microscope. But the recent emergence of new technologies such as whole-slide scanners and image management systems has made digitization of glass slides commonplace. This digital transformation has led to an increasing need for whole-slide image analysis software and visualization tools.

“Our software will address the growing demand for sophisticated image processing algorithms that will aid pathologists in reaching an accurate assessment more efficiently and effectively as well as assist researchers and scientists in generating highly reproducible and quantitative data” says CEO, Steven Hashagen. “The number of institutions that have invested in digital pathology hardware and software systems is rapidly growing, and our tools will allow these institutions to leverage more value out of their investments”.

Indica Labs’ initial product offering will include a set of digital pathology software tools that will be used by pathologists in academic medical centers, government research institutions, global pharmaceutical companies, and small biotech firms.

For more information, please visit http://www.indicalab.com.

About Indica Labs, Inc.

Indica Labs provides sophisticated image analysis software for digital pathology. 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.

Contact

Indica Labs, Inc.

info@indicalab.com

(505) 573-5167

AI-Powered Pathology

Sixth Generation ScanScope® AT Highest-Capacity Scanner Available Today 

VISTA, Calif.-- Aperio, the global leader in providing digital pathology solutions that improve patient care, today announced the launch of the ScanScope® AT, the latest addition to Aperio’s industry-leading, patented line of ScanScope slide scanning instruments.

For more than a decade, Aperio has been the leader in producing high-quality lab instruments for digitizing microscope slides. The new ScanScope AT incorporates the very latest technology to deliver the most compact, highest throughput, lowest cost-per-slide, highest-capacity scanner on the market today with superior image quality and highest first scan success rate for high-throughput applications.

“The ScanScope AT underscores Aperio’s commitment to the continued development and evolution of our already industry-leading digital pathology technology,” said Dirk G. Soenksen, CEO of Aperio. “The AT has a small footprint for easier installation, yet produces the same high-resolution, superior quality images that Aperio is known for.”

Made possible through a combination of improved efficiencies in scan speed, robotic slide loading and handling, and user interface software design combined with high image quality to minimize rescans, the ScanScope AT is a groundbreaking development for the digital pathology market.

With just a 16-inch by 24-inch footprint, the ScanScope AT features a 400-slide capacity with sustained throughput of 30 slides per hour. Utilizing patented line scanning and inline compression technology, the AT can scan a 20x slide in an all-inclusive time of 95 seconds, producing a fully prepared image ready for immediate viewing.

In addition, automated tissue finding, focusing, and calibration processes yield the highest first-scan success rates, resulting in reduced cost per slide and lower total cost of ownership due to low re-scan rates and high-quality images.

The ScanScope AT comes equipped with an elegant, extensively tested, next generation autoloader designed to minimize mechanical complexity. The new autoloader substantially reduces travel distance for the slide, improving overall scan time and reliability. The system interoperates with Sakura slide racks, allowing slides to be transferred into Aperio slide racks 20 at a time, further saving time and improving throughput.

Greg Crandall, Aperio’s chief engineer, stated, “The design of the AT benefits tremendously from Aperio’s 11 years of experience building scanners. Not only is it our fastest scanner to date, it is also our most reliable in terms of slide handling. We have created a horizontal slide loader that holds almost four times as many slides as our previous model while fully supporting the slide throughout a very short travel distance, thus maximizing the safety of even imperfectly prepared slides.”

TelecomTV | News | California rolls out cloud-based telemedicine network.

The joint venture will combine live, store and forward, and home monitoring audio- and video-communications services for the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

By Nicole Lewis,  InformationWeek 
May 11, 2011
URL: http://www.informationweek.com/news/healthcare/interoperability/229500026 

In an effort to push further into the telemedicine market, telecommunications provider Alcatel-Lucent has announced that it will collaborate with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) to develop a telemedicine platform and suite of applications.

The company says the new system will offer real-time clinical encounters in a virtual "exam room." By using a Web portal, patients will have access to both scheduled and emergency care from any location at any time through a variety of mobile devices using real-time video and audio communication among multiple participants in multiple locations.

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At the same time, the system will generate, retrieve, and store patient data, and will make use of advanced technologies such as immersive and cloud-based communications.

Sid Ahuja, VP of Alcatel-Lucent Ventures, said the platform will be an important component of Alcatel-Lucent's connected hospital strategy that will allow hospitals to extend their reach and care beyond their physical walls. He also said the UPMC health delivery network, which has more than 20 hospitals, 400 outpatient sites, a health plan, and operates medical facilities in Italy and Ireland, will help Alcatel-Lucent test, validate, and build a better solution that will be offered to other healthcare organizations.

"The healthcare sector requires specific customizations of IT systems for reasons of privacy, quality of care, and reachability," Ahuja said in an interview. "Further, acceptance and usage of new technologies takes significant usage trials and commitment from healthcare organizations. We have decided to not just introduce new technology but to make sure it is vetted in the 'care process' practiced today." According to Ahuja, the plan is to have real UPMC trials with patient usage by end of this year. Alcatel-Lucent will also showcase the platform to other healthcare organizations and develop plans for other trials next year.

Currently, UPMC is using telepresence technology from Polycom in several areas of patient care including pathology, dermatology, stroke, psychiatry, trauma, and wound care. The next-generation telemedicine platform will upgrade the service with the necessary clinical input to ensure a richer and more robust product that fits the workflow of caregivers.

"The new platform will help to coordinate all three types of telehealth (live, store and forward, and home monitoring) into a single offering that is coupled with education and administration, all riding on an integrated telehealth network," said Andrew Watson, VP of UPMC's international and commercial services division. "We believe that almost all clinical services can be positively impacted by telemedicine, which can be used to treat chronic diseases, acute medical issues such as stroke, and for specialist care such as cardiology, endocrinology, and surgery."

Watson also said telemedicine provides UPMC with significant cost savings through increased home care, fewer readmissions, and greater provider efficiency.

The new telemedicine platform will build on the more than $1.3 billion that UPMC has invested over the last five years in health IT. This includes significant investments in electronic medical records and interoperability, a patient Web portal, primary and secondary data centers, and connectivity among UPMC's more than 20 hospitals both regionally and internationally. The telemedicine platform is being developed to leverage and complement these investments.

It is being developed along with Bell Labs, Alcatel-Lucent's research arm, and expected to be ready for commercial launch in early 2013.

Vista, CA and Munich, Germany – May 10, 2011 – Aperio, the global leader in providing digital pathology solutions that improve patient care, and Definiens, the leading Health Image Intelligence™ company, today announced a partnership in which Aperio will market Definiens Tissue Studio™, the company’s leading image analysis software for quantitative digital pathology, on a worldwide, non-exclusive basis.

Image analysis is a cutting-edge capability that provides automated quantitative analytical techniques to help pathologists interpret pathology slides, which informs treatment decisions and improves patient care.

Definiens Tissue Studio will be integrated into Aperio’s applications framework and accessible through its Spectrum™ information management system to expand the existing suite of image analysis tools that include Area Quantification, Cell Quantification, Microvessel Analysis, Rare Event Detection and Genie Histology Pattern Recognition.  The Spectrum system includes viewing tools and enables the execution of analysis applications in a geographically distributed environment for maximum throughput.

“This alliance furthers our ability to significantly improve intra- and inter-observer agreement and patient care by providing the most scalable and highest performance digital pathology solutions available,” said Dirk G. Soenksen, CEO of Aperio. “We are excited that Definiens recognizes the value of leveraging their leading image analysis software on the industry’s most robust digital pathology platform.”

Definiens Tissue Studio automatically detects regions of interest within a tissue sample and quantifies these regions on a cell-by-cell basis. The detailed quantification enables a large number of standard and user-defined measurements. In addition to classifications such as staining intensity and cell counts, the software quantifies individual cellular morphological characteristics such as circularity, elliptical fit, area, length, width and distance to tumor border to help accurately measure nuclear, cytoplasmic, and membrane biomarkers. Additionally, it allows users to create completely new features offering virtually unlimited quantification related to biomarker expression and tissue morphology.

Aperio users in both healthcare and life sciences will benefit from Definiens Tissue Studio’s fluorescence image analysis capabilities and morphometry tools. Morphometry can provide pathologists with a means to make more educated decisions about a course of treatment, and for  determining the relative effect of drug candidates on cells and tissues.

“Digital pathology is becoming an essential technology for increasing productivity and improving treatment decisions,” said Thomas Heydler, CEO of Definiens. “Automated image analysis is the next step in digital pathology, providing clinicians with greater insight into patients’ disease states. Definiens Tissue Studio is a natural fit for Aperio’s platform, and we expect to reach a wide customer base as a result of this partnership.”

Aperio’s digital pathology platform provides a unique combination of instruments, image management software and a patent-protected architecture that allows image analysis partners such as Definiens to offer their applications to the largest and fastest growing installed base (800 systems, including 500 in hospitals and reference labs) of digital pathology customers. Aperio plans to continually expand its capabilities with tools from other suppliers.

Courtesy of Dark Daily

Trend could prove unfavorable to independent clinical laboratory companies

More physicians now join hospital-owned practices than any other type of practice. That’s one conclusion reported in a survey conducted by the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA). This is a trend that may have negative implications for independent clinical laboratory companies and pathology groups that provide medical laboratory testing to office-based physicians. 

In the MGMA survey, higher compensation packages offered by hospital-owned practices were cited as one reason why growing numbers of physicians choose a hospital-owned practice. The survey also determined that physicians believe they will have a better chance for reimbursements in hospital-owned practice settings, compared to other practice models. 

Meanwhile, first-year compensation packages continue to show wide variation for single-specialty versus multi-specialty practices, as well as between specialists and primary care physicians. It is a bothersome trend, since the proportion of graduating physicians selecting primary care has declined in each year of the past decade.

Full story

This new partnership is dedicated to bringing cutting edge digital pathology tools to PAML and its partners and enable them to benefit from collaboration