Partners in digital pathology: Mackenzie Health and Philips

Pathology covers a broad scope of diseases and health conditions while also providing the option to sub-specialize and develop interests in particular areas such as oncology, which is a key advantage to the field. Dr. Evans shares that “when implementing something new like digital pathology, I think it's worthwhile to actually take a step back and realize that for well over 100 years the practice of pathology has involved a paradigm with glass slides and a light microscope. So, taking the glass slides and making digital replicas of them that are examined with software on a high-resolution monitor, while rewarding, is more difficult than it sounds.”

Dr. Evans feels the biggest challenge for labs making this transition is financial and then the implementation and disruption that goes with it.

He notes that McKenzie Health has been working in collaboration with Phillips as part of its strategic partnership and the Company has been “very helpful by being so responsive when we’ve had issues arise. Even if something were to come up that was of a critical nature, we know we have a representative on site who can escalate things up very quickly,” he explains.

Dr. Evans concludes that with the artificial intelligence-enabled digital pathology there is a fear that pathologists will be replaced by larger groups. However, he believes “the role of the human as the ultimate chaperone of the whole process will most likely change, but it's not going disappear.”