Philips and Dako sign digital pathology agreement

According to Bob van Gemen, general manager of Philips Digital Pathology, the partnership will develop integrated digital solutions that enhance the operational efficiency of pathology departments and that also increase diagnostic confidence.

Currently, anatomic pathology workflows to examine tissue samples are based on the microscope, through which pathologists examine tissue sections mounted on glass slides and treated with different stains.

According to Philips, the staining enhances the contrast between, or reveals the presence of, cellular and molecular components such as cell nuclei or specific proteins.

The accurate interpretation of the results is critical to the diagnosis and staging of each individual patient’s disease and requires a great deal of skill and experience.

Digitising the images that pathologists normally view through a microscope may enable the introduction of objective and quantitative image analysis tools.

Dr Clive Taylor from Southern California University said: ‘Digital pathology has been long in gestation, in comparison to radiology, where images also are the currency of practice and where image acquisition, transfer, interpretation and storage is almost entirely digital.