Pathology and Radiology Collaborate with a Concordance Conference

TheUniversity Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center (UHCMC) is in the process of deploying a digital pathology system and therefore exploring ways to educate and prepare their pathologists for this new technology (see:Digital Pathology Pilot Predicts Prosperity: Pondering Pathology ’s Pivot). As part of the process, a pilot study was undertaken with a focus on frozen sections. In the study, pathologists ’ diagnoses using digitized slide images were compared with diagnoses using standard microscopy. Frozen sections were chosen as the focus of this study because digital pathology allows remote access by a specialized pathologist if necessary. The results showed an average overall concordance rate o f 95% for the two methods across 11 organ systems.In the article referenced above, brief mention was made about a routine rad-path conference in the hospital that was greatly improved by the use of digital images. The article went on to discuss the purpose of this rad-path concordance conference: to resolve issues of concordance between imaging findings and the microscopic findings to also determine whether or not patients need additional surgical intervention or can be followed with imaging. In the support of this goal, it was deemed necessary for all conference participants to examine both the radiologic images and the microscopic images. In October, 2006, I first proposed close collaboration (or even, shockingly, merger) of the two medical specialties of pathology and...
Source: Lab Soft News - Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Tags: Diagnostics Digital Imaging in Pathology Healthcare Innovations Lab Industry Trends Medical Education Medical Research Pathology Informatics Quality of Care Radiology Surgical Pathology Source Type: blogs