Digital imaging seen as pathology lab cure

August 19, 2008

By Jon Van

Aug. 20, 2008 (McClatchy-Tribune News Service delivered by Newstex) -- CHICAGO -- Instead of gazing through microscopes to study blood, saliva and other samples from patients to diagnose illness, doctors may soon look at computer screens.

Computerizing hospital pathology labs is the goal of a joint venture launched this summer by General Electric Co. (NYSE:GE) and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Backers say digital imaging will cut health-care costs and improve quality of care.

Researchers at Barrington, Ill.-based GE Healthcare worked for three years to develop the technology enabling pathologists to look at images on computers. Digitizing the information now examined on glass slides under microscopes will boost pathologist productivity and reduce errors, said Gene Cartwright, who will head the joint venture, dubbed Omnyx LLC.

"We know the costs of pathology labs will go down," said Cartwright, who spent more than 20 years with Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) before joining GE. "A pathologist spends 20 percent of his time looking through a microscope. The rest of the time is spent collecting information and thinking."

Enabling pathologists to access information on a computer also will allow for sharing information more quickly, as is done in cardiology and radiology departments, Cartwright said.

Because of the dense information, digitizing an image used to take up to 10 minutes, and computer storage requirements made the process cost-prohibitive. Also, sending high-quality images over computer networks was time consuming.

GE engineers have cut the time needed to digitize a slide image to half a minute, Cartwright said, and advances in silicon chip design have lowered computer storage costs dramatically. The company also has devised a proprietary technology that enables quick streaming of digital images over networks.

Omnyx, which hopes to roll out its first products in 2010, envisions sales of about $2 billion a year.

While some pathologists may be apprehensive about the new technology, digital imaging should gain acceptance quickly, said Dr. Jared Schwartz, president of the College of American Pathologists.

"We have seen that digital imaging has markedly improved what radiologists are able to do," said Schwartz. "My expectation is that our acceptance curve will be much faster than radiology because we've seen someone else go through it."

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