title: Overview of contemporary guidelines in digital pathology: what is available in 2015 and what still needs to be addressed?
abstract: As technological advancements continue to transform the practice of pathology, new adopters of these technologies will look to guidelines on how best to incorporate them with an eye to preserving and enhancing patient safety and diagnostic quality. Telepathology, using a variety of digital pathology modalities, has tremendous potential to achieve that goal. Pathology departments are increasingly looking to implement different digital pathology platforms, whole slide imaging (WSI) systems in particular, for a broad range of applications in patient care. WSI allows for the acquisition, management and review of completely digitised slides as would be done with a light microscope. WSI also facilitates image analysis that cannot be carried out by a pathologist using traditional microscopy. Over the last few years, the Digital Pathology Association, The Royal College of Pathologists, College of American Pathologists, Canadian Association of Pathologists, the American Telemedicine Association and the Society of Toxicologic Pathology have published guidelines for validating and implementing digital pathology systems. This review summarises, compares and contrasts these published guidelines and discusses pertinent issues that need to be addressed as the guidelines are revised in the future.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, The Mount Sinai Hospital, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York, USA.
authors.forename: Matthew G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Hanna
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, UPMC Shadyside Hospital, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
authors.forename: Liron
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Pantanowitz
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Laboratory Medicine Program, University Health Network, Toronto General Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Andrew J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Evans
mesh_terms: D019983:Guideline Adherence / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards*; D008853:Microscopy / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards*; D010337:Pathology Department, Hospital / Q000592:standards*; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic / Q000592:standards*; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000592:standards; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012955:Societies, Medical; D019113:Telepathology / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards*
keywords: DIAGNOSTICS; DIGITAL PATHOLOGY; QUALITY ASSURANCE; TELEPATHOLOGY