Greater productivity with digital pathology at Granada University Hospitals in Spain

The team of 23 pathologists diagnoses more than 280,000 tissue slides each year and is the first fully digital pathology lab in Spain, serving hospitals in and around Granada. Digitalization is necessary for the eventual evolution to computational pathology.

Dr. Raimundo Garcia Del Moral, Director of the Provincial Laboratory of Pathological Anatomy, says, “Digital pathology is the system that turns a subjective activity into an objective one. It used to be the visualization of a microscope, therefore digital pathology implies transforming the image the human eye perceives into a digital image, susceptible for analysis.” “This image can then be analyzed, measured, quantified, photographed, compared and simultaneously shared with other pathologists. In fact, the facility has been able to centralize the entire pathology laboratory process through digitization, keeping pathologists in contact with the main lab when they’re working at outlying hospitals.”

“After the laboratory and digital pathology systems were unified, the digital pathology system was implemented in just 60 days. This is in contrast to other groups in Spain, working with a different system that reportedly requires years to digitize even 30-40% of their cases.”

“The efficiency increase for the hospital system is significant, with a more than 20% increase* for some pathologists on average. The group estimates it’s been able to save 13 hours per day, reducing the need for longer shifts or additional staff. Most pathologists at Granada University Hospitals report that it took less than seven days to become familiar with the digital workflow. All team pathologists have reported a clear preference for digital pathology slides, compared to working with a microscope.“