With Digital Pathology, No More Squinting and Peering at the Microscope and Glass Slide

A significant part of pathology consists of squinting your eyes and peering over microscopes, trying hard to make out patterns in the slide.

Digitizing pathology slides and displaying them on large computer screen would make the process of observing slides very convenient. Beyond convenience, there are many other advantages and applications of digitizing pathology slides. 

The developments till now in the emerging filed of Digital Pathology are summed up in this talk titled "The Evolution of Digital Pathology"  by the founder of Aperio.

Probably the most heartening line in the article is 

" I think it’s fair to say that pathologists today acknowledge that the quality of digital slides is more than adequate for most needs." 

For a fee, Aperio scans and converts glass slides into digital slides which can be viewed on the Internet. At charges ranging from $30 to $150 per slide, this service is hardly affordable for most hospitals, especially in countries like India.

But as with all things digital, the cost of this service is expected to fall steeply every few months. (Like the cost of sequencing a human genome )

A couple of weeks ago, GE Healthcare formed an independent company, 'Omnyx', to develop the technologies needed to take digital pathology mainstream. 

The ensuing competition will drive the prices down to affordable levels.

Till then, keep peering at the slide under the microscope.

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