GE Healthcare unveils integrated digital pathology system
Omnyx IDP enables pathology departments to work as one large team
GE Healthcare's Omnyx Integrated Digital Pathology (IDP), which enables pathology professionals to create, manage, store, annotate, measure and view digital whole slide images (WSI) for routine pathology use is now available in the UK.
The system, launched in the US in 2010, was developed as part of a joint venture with University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) in the US and includes an application to convert WSIs from specific third party scanners for use in the Omnyx digital pathology system, which provides additional flexibility for customers.
Getting the right case, to the right pathologist, at the right time is important to help expedite accurate diagnoses. The Omnyx technology does what traditional microscopes cannot – it unites the pathology department, helping to improve collaboration, communication, and efficiency across the enterprise. By digitising slide images and corresponding workflow, Omnyx IDP provides pathologists with powerful digital tools to quickly assimilate, analyse and share pathology cases and associated patient information. This helps enable efficiencies related to case review and communication with colleagues or specialists in the field, regardless of location.
The University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust, one of the UK’s largest teaching trusts serving a population of more than one million people, took part in a successful three-month beta test of the system last year. Dr David Snead, consultant pathologist and clinical director for cellular pathology at the trust, said: “Digital pathology primarily needs to enable pathologists to work more efficiently as part of larger teams. One of the most refreshing aspects of the Omnyx system is that it is designed to do exactly that. Through a well-thought-out system architecture and workflow programme, Omnyx could feasibly link a number of pathology departments to work as one large team. This would help pathologists achieve great time efficiency. With efficiency, cost saving should soon follow.”
“Today, many histology departments prepare slides then walk, mail, or courier the slides over to the anatomic pathology department. A waiting pathologist examines each slide with a single microscope. Now envision a digital system that allows a group of pathologists, or a multi-disciplinary team of specialists, to receive pathology images, scanned from the histology team, within seconds, to their desktop for analysis. We can now make this vision a reality for more healthcare organisations,” added Olivier Croly, vice president and general manager of IT at GE Healthcare.
