How Can WSI (Whole Slide Imaging) Improve Your Pathology Practice?

Posted on June 2, 2011 by ev1

There is probably no other pathologist who is responsible for scanning more slides and using digital pathology to enhance both their laboratory operation as well that of hundreds of other laboratories other than Dr. Ken Bloom. From ACIS to Virtual IHC and years of experience prior to whole slide with remote telepathology, Ken has seen it all but more importantly has been successful at clinical business models that increase productivity, decrease turn around time and enhance patient care.

FREE PHC Webinar Courtesy of College of American Pathologists

Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Noon – 1:00 PM Central
Speaker: Kenneth J. Bloom, MD, FCAP

Once digital images are produced from glass slides, sharing of the digital images for a variety of purposes is facilitated, including expert review or consultation in a single multi-site practice setting, between practice groups, and potentially international primary diagnosis or consultation. The use of digital images can improve workflow by eliminating the need to physically distribute glass slides, and by allowing digital images to be distributed to experts at remote locations from the histology laboratory site. Stored digital images can be retrieved more easily than glass slides for previous slide review, clinical interdisciplinary conferences, research and publication. The improved work flow can increase productivity, decrease turn-around times and improve patient care. Digital image analysis software development has the potential to provide methods for quality assurance in slide review and to allow quantitative analysis of immunohistochemical staining intensity and location, and even image comparisons to archived previously diagnosed images. More importantly, unchaining the pathologist from the microscope will open a plethora of slide-based technologies to the pathologist, that will likely transform the practice of pathology and significantly improve patient care. This webinar will discuss the potential clinical application areas for WSI.

Tonight at Observatory: The Fascination of Victorian Bell Jars Explored in Lecture and Show and Tell!

Posted on June 2, 2011 by ev1

Under Glass: A Victorian Obsession
An Illustrated Lecture and Show and Tell with with Glass Parlor Dome Collector John Whiteknight
Date: TONIGHT: Thursday, June 2nd
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $5
Part of the Out of the Cabinet: Tales of Strange Objects and the People Who Love Them Series, presented by Morbid Anatomy and Morbid Anatomy Scholar in Residence Evan Michelson
A smoking monkey dressed as a Marquis, a Wild West scalping scene created in beeswax, a cemetery scene made from the deceased's hair, and stuffed pug dog puppies, all under glass domes!!!!!
The bell jar, or glass parlor dome, is synonymous with our memory of the Victorian Age (1837 - 1901). During the 19th century, these blown glass forms were referred to not as domes but as shades, and graced nearly every parlor, protecting a broad variety of treasures--including miniature tableaux, waxworks, natural history specimens, taxidermy of exotic birds and pets, automatons, and delicate arrangements of hairwork, featherwork, and shellwork--from dust and curious fingers.
Tonight, join parlor dome collector, scholar and author of the upcoming book Under Glass, A Victorian Obsession John Whitenight as he shares treasured objects from his more than 30 years of collecting, traces the art and history of the parlor dome in an illustrated lecture, and muses on the peculiar allure of the glass parlor dome, that extraordinarily thin bubble of glass which is at once barrier and invitation, creating an enchanted world which teases the viewer by saying, “ look at me, study me and enjoy me, but do not touch."
John Whitenight has collected antiques since he was a young boy. Along with his fever for collecting came a thirst for knowledge and a love affair with all things involving the Victorian era. Currently,his private collection consists of over 175 domes from four inches high to well over three feet high. As voracious for information as for new specimens, he has, over the years, become something of a scholar on domes and the various art forms beneath them. Feeling that this is an area that has been grossly overlooked in the study of 19th century decorative arts, Mr. Whitenight has decided it was time to put these wonderfully whimsical and eccentric Victorian concoctions into the spotlight where they belong; to this end, he is hard at work on a lavishly illustrated book on the topic entitled Under Glass, A Victorian Obsession.

Hope to see you there!

You can find out more about this event on the Observatory website by clicking here; you can access this event on Facebook here. You can get directions to Observatory--which is next door to the Morbid Anatomy Library (more on that here)--by clicking here. You can find out more about Observatory here, join our mailing list by clicking here, and join us on Facebook by clicking here.

Image: Tonight's lecturer John Whiteknight with a small part of his extensive collection of Victorian glass domes.

Caliper Owners Group Meeting Showcases Transformative Technologies for Advancing Personalized Medicine

Posted on June 2, 2011 by ev1

More Than 45 Customer Presentations Highlighted Research and Technologies that are Revolutionizing Healthcare

Dates of Upcoming Owners Group Meetings Set for June 10, 2011 in Alameda, California and September 14-15 in London, UK

HOPKINTON, Mass., June 1, 2011 -- Caliper Life Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: CALP), a leading provider of tools and services for drug discovery and life sciences research, hosted its 2011 annual Customers Owners Group (COG 2011) meeting on May 17 and 18 at its Hopkinton headquarters. This thought-leadership conference brought together leaders in research, drug discovery, and diagnostics to discuss the technologies and discoveries that are transforming the detection and treatment of disease, and making personalized medicine a reality. More than 350 customers attended the event, which featured 45 presentations from researchers representing life sciences companies and institutions.

“COG 2011 was a tremendous congress, with presentation tracks focused on next generation sequencing, imaging & pathology, biomarkers discovery, molecular diagnostics, biologics & vaccines, and targeted small molecules, each of which is a critical enabling theme for personalized medicine. A key message from the meeting was the clear need for technological innovations in these areas that can enable the precision diagnostics and therapeutics that are required to achieve the vision of personalized medicine,” said Kevin Hrusovsky, President and CEO of Caliper Life Sciences. “This event highlighted Caliper’s focus on innovation, collaboration, and culture as key cornerstones that define our efforts to extend and improve the quality of life and to truly place the patient first in the practice of medicine. Throughout the event, it was our privilege to motivate and provide inspiration to leading researchers from industry and academia, while also demonstrating how our technologies are having a profound impact on research applications.”

“One of the main reasons I am here today is the important collaborations between academy and industry are going to drive this revolution. We are in an era of technology-driven medicine,” said Dennis Ausiello, M.D., Chief of Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, Chief Scientific Officer of Partners Healthcare, and member of the Board of Directors of Pfizer and the Broad Institute, while delivering his keynote presentation about the advancements in research and technologies that will transform medicine. Dr. Ausiello cited specific examples where gene expression and sequencing technologies have improved the quality of patient care. “I am inspired personally by both the approach and the vision that Caliper has in helping deliver this revolution.”

Additional keynote presentations were provided by Go van Dam, M.D., Ph.D., the pioneering surgeon and Associate Professor at University Medical Center Groningen, who presented on the innovative clinical application of optical imaging and biomarker detection technologies during surgical procedures to significantly improve a patient’s prognosis, and by Stephan Schuster, Ph.D., Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Pennsylvania State University and project leader for the South African Genome Project and the Wooly Mammoth Genome Project, who described the use of next generation sequencing to explore evolutionary diversity within mankind and of extinct and near-extinct organisms.

Caliper’s vision for personalized medicine includes several enabling technology themes that will revolutionize the practice of healthcare in the near future. Caliper’s COG events are organized into tracks that are closely aligned to these revolutionary themes: next generation sequencing, imaging and pathology, biomarkers discovery, molecular diagnostics, biologics and vaccines, and targeted small molecules. Caliper extended its COG series, with upcoming events in Alameda, CA, USA on June 10, 2011 and in London, UK on September 14 and 15, 2011. For more details, and for presentations from previous COG events, please visit http://caliperls.com/support/caliperowners-group.htm.

About Caliper Life Sciences
Caliper Life Sciences is a premier provider of cutting-edge technologies enabling researchers in the life sciences industry to create life-saving and enhancing medicines and diagnostic tests more quickly and efficiently. Caliper is aggressively innovating new technology to bridge the gap between in vitro assays and in vivo results, enabling the translation of those results into cures for human disease. Caliper’s portfolio of offerings includes state-of-the-art microfluidics, lab automation and liquid handling, optical imaging technologies, and discovery and development outsourcing solutions. For more information please visit www.caliperLS.com.

UPMC Enters China with Agreement to Provide Second-Opinion Pathology Consultations to KingMed Diagnostics

Posted on June 1, 2011 by ev1

Back in April I reposted a press release highlighting Aperio and UCLA performing second consults from China. June brings news of UPMC setting up a second-opinion network in China as well with reference to potentially migrating to the Omnyx platform they are helping to develop.

17 central labs serving 6000 hospitals and clinics in more than 2/3 of China's provinces are operated by KingMed Diagnostics. Wow.

Jun. 1, 2011 (PR Newswire Asia) --

PITTSBURGH, June 1, 2011 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- Marking its first medical services agreement in Asia, UPMC announced today that it will provide remote, second-opinion pathology consultations to KingMed Diagnostics, the largest independent medical diagnostic laboratory in China.

Using equipment that scans glass pathology slides and stores and transmits the images electronically, KingMed will have the ability to seek second opinions on patient diagnoses from UPMC's pathologists through a secure, Web-based telepathology portal. The service is expected to start by late summer.

"This three-year agreement will provide patients served by KingMed with rapid access to UPMC's world-renowned pathologists, thereby helping to ensure the most accurate diagnoses of complex diseases," said George K. Michalopoulos, M.D., Ph.D., UPMC pathologist and professor and chairman of the Department of Pathology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. The department is the largest academic clinical organization of its kind, with 175 faculty members.

"KingMed is committed to offering the most comprehensive, highest-quality laboratory services in China," said Yaoming Liang, founder and CEO of KingMed Diagnostics. "This agreement with UPMC demonstrates that commitment and provides our patients with access to another source of pathology expertise that is not widely available in China."

Travis Tu, head of UPMC's new representative's office in Shanghai, noted that the KingMed deal is just the first of what UPMC hopes will be many agreements to provide an array of medical services throughout Asia. "UPMC's reputation for clinical excellence is attracting partners like KingMed that are committed to improving health care in Asia. At the same time, by leveraging our clinical successes in western Pennsylvania, UPMC is able to generate revenue that supports jobs and world-class health care and research at home."

UPMC's collaboration with KingMed also is expected to include training for pathologists from China in UPMC's Pittsburgh facilities and joint academic meetings as part of ongoing medical education in China.

In the future, KingMed may replace its telepathology platform with the digital pathology solutions being created by Omnyx, a joint venture between UPMC and GE Healthcare. Formed in 2008, Omnyx is digitizing slides and the corresponding workflow to improve collaboration, communication and efficiency. Omnyx is the first company ever formed by GE with an academic medical center.

About UPMC

UPMC is a $9 billion global health enterprise with more than 50,000 employees headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pa., and is transforming health care by integrating more than 20 hospitals, 400 doctors' offices and outpatient sites, a health insurance services division, and international and commercial services. Affiliated with the University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences, UPMC is redefining health care by using innovative science, technology, and medicine to invent new models of accountable, cost-efficient, and patient-centered care. For more information on how UPMC is taking medicine from where it is to where it needs to be, go to http://www.UPMC.com.

About KingMed Diagnostics

KingMed Diagnostics operates the largest independent clinical laboratory network in China with 17 central laboratories serving more than 6,000 hospitals and clinics in 26 out of 33 provincial level regions in China. Headquartered in Guangzhou, KingMed is accredited by the College of American Pathologists and International Organization of Standardization under its ISO15189 standard and provides medical diagnostic testing services to hospitals, clinics, pharmaceutical companies and research institutions across China. KingMed is a market leader in the provision of medical diagnostic testing services and is committed to offering the most comprehensive, highest-quality laboratory services available in China.

http://www.upmc.com/mediarelations

SOURCE?UPMC

(Source: PR Newswire )
(Source: Quotemedia)