The digital pathology archive: the UMC Utrecht initiative

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The digital pathology archive the UMC Utrecht
initiative
Paul van Diest, MD, PhD Professor and
Head Department of Pathology University Medical
Center Utrecht p.j.vandiest_at_umcutrecht.nl
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The problem I

• 100.000 new slides per year
• archive of 7.000.000 slides
• total weight 60.000 kg
• weight increase 100 kg per year

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The problem II

• slides often have to be retrieved
• clinicopathological conferences
• compare with new material
• teaching
• research

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The problem III

• slide retrieval takes time (0.5 fte)
• many circulating slides
• slides may get lost/misplaced
• slide quality deteriorates in time
• faded colors
• loose cover glasses
• broken

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The solution?

• technically feasible to digitize all slides
• store images on SAN
• view slides digitally

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Advantages of the digital archive

• all slides are digitally available
• instantaneously
• simultaneously to multiple users
• no slide retrieval from the archive
• no searching for circulating slides
• constant image quality
• no slides get lost/damaged

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Advantages of the digital archive

• quicker preparation of CP conferences
• CP can be held outside the pathology
• laboratory
• close colleagues can be consulted quicker
• remote colleagues (at home, at conferences,
• on vacation) can be consulted quicker
• external consultations can be done quicker
• images can be made available in EPF (ZIS,
  Mirador)

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Advantages of digital microscopy teaching

• all students view the same best slide
• slide images can be integrated with
• annotations
• questions
• macroscopic images
• sound clips
• links
• etc

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Advantages of the digital archive

• more efficient CP conferences
• higher speed, dynamics and flexibility of
• consultation
• higher quality and more dynamic teaching
• but

Can it be done?
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The digital pathology archive the UMC Utrecht
solution
acquisition workstation
scanning
macro imager
order form scanner
RVC
database
DPS
Sun SAN
HSM
storage
clinical users
pathology users
6 TB fast access hard disk array
120 TB tape library
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Digital slide demo
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PALGA link
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Pitfalls of the digital archive I

• huge storage management
• 200 MB 1 GB per slide (20x)
• 80 TB per year
• backup
• back archive
• speed of image retrieval
• logistics of scanning 500 slides per day
• no delay in having slides scanned
• flexible scanning slots
• image compression

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Pitfalls of the digital archive II

• costs (vs. savings/quality improvement)

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Scanning logistics

• scanners are loaded twice daily
• at different moments
• organize other work around this
• 7 hours per run
• bar code recognition in scanners
• extra set of slide boxes
• mark slides to be scanned (double slides)
• do not write on slides
• install alarm system when scanner crashes

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Future perspectives I

• nationwide digital archive (EPF)
• quicker revision
• quicker consultation

or
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Future perspectives II

• digital diagnostics
• remote diagnostics
• diagnostic networks

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from ..
to ..
pathology cockpit
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The digital pathology archivedesirable and
feasible!