Those who say we practice 19th Century medicine in the 21st Century usually are referring to paper medical records, but could just as well be speaking about pathology, since laboratory medicine has relied on microscopes and glass slides for 125 years. A joint venture between GE Healthcare and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center hopes to change that.

The two-year-old venture, called Omnyx, part of GE's $6 billion Healthymagination initiative, is now testing a digital pathology platform at three U.S. and one Canadian hospital. The Omnyx system combines a patented dual-camera scanning technique for fast digitization of samples without the loss of optical quality and software to automate pathology workflow, according to GE and UPMC. This means that patients no longer need to wait days or weeks for a diagnosis or second opinion while slides are shipped, stacked and inventoried, InformationWeek reports.

Readings then can be output directly to patients' electronic medical records.

"It is a uniquely integrated digital pathology technology to digitize the entire pathology workflow, and is expected to help improve efficiency, enhance quality and bring about faster diagnoses for patients," Omnyx CEO Gene Cartwright says in a press release. "We expect that Omnyx will provide a route for the field to adopt digitization, thereby reaping the cost savings, increased access and quality benefits that other fields, like radiology, have enjoyed since going digital."

UPMC is one of the four test sites, along with Montefiore Medical Center in New York, Stanford University Medical Center in Palo Alto, Calif., and University Health Network in Toronto. The hospitals will be collecting data for Omnyx to submit to the FDA in hopes of winning approval to market the digital pathology system. "No product has been commercialized yet, but it'll ship for research use early next year," Tony Melanson, vice president for strategy at Omnyx, tells InformationWeek.

To learn more:
- see this InformationWeek story
- read this joint GE-UPMC press release

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