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  • Role of digital pathology in diagnostic histopathology in the response to COVID-19: results from a survey of experience in a UK tertiary referral hospital

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Role of digital pathology in diagnostic histopathology in the response to COVID-19: results from a survey of experience in a UK tertiary referral hospital
  1. Lisa Browning1,2,
  2. Eve Fryer1,
  3. Derek Roskell1,
  4. Kieron White1,
  5. Richard Colling1,3,
  6. Jens Rittscher2,4,
  7. Clare Verrill1,2,3
  1. 1 Department of Cellular Pathology, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Oxford, Oxfordshire, UK
  2. 2 NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre, Oxford, Oxfordshire, UK
  3. 3 Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, Oxfordshire, UK
  4. 4 Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford, Oxford, Oxfordshire, UK
  1. Correspondence to Dr Lisa Browning, Cellular Pathology, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Oxford OX3 9DU, UK; Lisa.Browning{at}OUH.nhs.uk

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged our diagnostic services at a time when many histopathology departments already faced a diminishing workforce and increasing workload. Digital pathology (DP) has been hailed as a potential solution to at least some of the challenges faced. We present a survey of pathologists within a UK National Health Service cellular pathology department with access to DP, in which we ascertain the role of DP in clinical services during this current pandemic and explore challenges encountered. This survey indicates an increase in uptake of diagnostic DP during this period, with increased remote access. Half of respondents agreed that DP had facilitated maintenance of diagnostic practice. While challenges have been encountered, these are remediable, and none have impacted on the uptake of DP during this period. We conclude that in our institution, DP has demonstrated current and future potential to increase resilience in diagnostic practice and have highlighted some of the challenges that need to be considered.

  • education
  • information technology
  • pathology
  • surgical
  • hospital
  • pathology department
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported (CC BY 4.0) license, which permits others to copy, redistribute, remix, transform and build upon this work for any purpose, provided the original work is properly cited, a link to the licence is given, and indication of whether changes were made. See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

https://doi.org/10.1136/jclinpath-2020-206786

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    Footnotes

    • Handling editor Runjan Chetty.

    • Contributors LB and CV conceived the work, designed the survey and drafted and revised the manuscript. EF and DR contributed to the design of the survey and contributed to the drafting and revision of the manuscript. KW, RC and JR contributed to the drafting and revision of the manuscript.

    • Funding This paper is supported by the PathLAKE Centre of Excellence for digital pathology and artificial intelligence (AI), which is funded from the Data to Early Diagnosis and Precision Medicine strand of the government’s Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, managed and delivered by Innovate UK on behalf of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). Views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the PathLAKE Consortium members, the NHS, Innovate UK or UKRI. PathLAKE funding reference: 104689/Application number: 18 181. CV and LB are part funded by the National Institute for Health Research Oxford Biomedical Research Centre. Funding is via the Molecular Diagnostics Theme. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR or the Department of Health.

    • Competing interests Oxford is part of the PathLAKE digital pathology consortium. PathLAKE is one of the UK Government’s 5 AI Centres of Excellence and has received in kind industry investment from Philips for digital pathology equipment, software and other services. In this context, we have also received research support from InnovateUK for the PathLAKE consortium project – grant ref:File Ref: 104689/Application number: 18181. Personal conflicts: JR is a cofounder of Ground Truth Labs.

    • Patient consent for publication Not required.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; internally peer reviewed.