title: 21(st) century workflow: A proposal.
abstract: Digital pathology is rapidly developing, but early systems have been slow to gain traction outside of niche applications such as: Second-opinion telepathology, immunostain interpretation, and intraoperative telepathology. Pathologists have not yet developed a well-articulated plan for effectively utilizing digital imaging technology in their work. This paper outlines a proposal that is intended to begin meaningful progress toward achieving helpful computer-assisted pathology sign-out systems, such as pathologists' computer-assisted diagnosis (pCAD). pCAD is presented as a hypothetical intelligent computer system that would integrate advanced image analysis and better utilization of existing digital pathology data from lab information systems. A detailed example of automated digital pathology is presented, as an automated breast cancer lymph node sign-out. This proposal provides stakeholders with a conceptual framework that can be used to facilitate development work, communication, and identification of new automation strategies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA.
authors.forename: Jeffrey L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Fine
keywords: Automated microscopy; digital pathology; image analysis; pathologists computer assisted diagnosis; pathology informatics; virtual microscopy; whole slide imaging; workflow