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PathXchange – There is an App for that

Posted on October 11, 2010 by ev1

PathXchange is proud to offer PathXchange app for Apple iPhone and iPad, featuring case content from PathXchange and articles and blogs from LWW Pathology Network. Whether you are a practicing pathologist or a pathologist in training, this is a must have app for your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad.

With over 8600 members from 168 countries and hosting over 2000 pathology cases, PathXchange is the largest online pathology community. PathXchange iPhone app allows members and non-members to view the most interesting and educational cases in Pathology. Enabled by the latest digital pathology technologies, many of these cases contain whole slide images that you can view using your iPhone as a virtual microscope!

LWW Pathology Network is an online resource brought to you by Wolters Kluwer Lippincott Williams & Wilkins (LWW) that delivers current full-text articles from the entire LWW pathology journal collection in one convenient location. Journal content is sorted into continuously updates topic-based channels.

Download the PathXchange app for your iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad!

Register Now for Pathology Visions and Pre-Conference Workshops

Posted on October 11, 2010 by ev1

Pathology Visions will be offering pre-conference workshops to enhance your conference experience.

Workshops are only open to registered attendees of Pathology Visions and require registration. Select your requested workshops during online registration or email info@pathologyvisions.com. Space is limited, so reserve your seats early.

2010 Pre-Conference Workshops

Sunday, October 24, 1:00 – 5:00 p.m.
Sheraton Hotel and Marina (Pathology Visions host hotel)

The pre-conference workshops are a great way to kick-start your Pathology Visions experience!

Digital Pathology for Quality Assurance, presented by Jared Schwartz, M.D., Ph.D., F.C.A.P.

Healthcare organizations spanning the globe are adopting digital pathology for improved patient care.

Discover the resounding benefits that Aperio’s digital pathology solutions can bring to your organization. The majority of digital pathology users in the clinical market have an Aperio system and as the leader in digital pathology healthcare solutions, Aperio is ready to help you move toward the adoption of digital pathology for improved patient care. Our experienced team has installed over 700 total systems in 30 countries, 68% of which are installed within hospitals and reference labs.

One of the most critical aspects of a hospital’s charter is enhancing patient care and ensuring patient safety. Learn how Aperio’s healthcare solutions can promote quality assurance for enhanced patient care.

To learn more about Aperio,
visit http://www.aperio.com.

CompuCyte’s Laser Scanning Cytometry for Quantitative Pathology –
The Modern Pathologist’s Best Friend

iGeneration LSC technology enables objective, fully automated investigation of tissue and cytology specimens based on precise, accurate and reproducible analysis of cellular biomarkers on a single-cell level. This workshop will provide an overview of applications employed in biopharmaceutical preclinical/ clinical studies and research pathology, ranging from basic 2-color chromatic applications to state-of-the art multi-parameter experiments on samples stained with combinations of chromatic and fluorescent stains. A virtual demonstration of the iCys^® Research Imaging Cytometer will highlight its unique cytometric analysis of pathology specimens.

To learn more about CompuCyte,
visit http://www.compucyte.com.

Tumor Morphological and Biomarker Profiling with Definiens Tissue Studio 2.0

One year ago at Pathology Visions, Definiens launched Definiens Tissue Studio, the most advanced digital pathology image analysis solution for biomarker translational research. One year later, Definiens Tissue Studio has become the gold standard in digital pathology image analysis; providing flexibility, ease of use, rapid analysis times, and accurate cell-by-cell biomarker and morphological quantification.

This talk will focus on the application of Definiens Tissue Studio 2.0 for tumor biomarker and morphological profiling of bright field and immunofluorescence digital pathology images

To learn more about Definiens,
visit http://www.definiens.com.

Slide Sharing Made Easy

Introducing Pathology@home, the fastest and easiest way to share your digital slides with colleagues anywhere, for research or consultation. Bring your favorite digital slides on a USB key or drive to see how easy it is!

To learn more about Objective Pathology,
visit http://www.objectivepathology.com.

Reminder: Pathology Visions 2010 – San Diego Oct 24-27

Posted on October 11, 2010 by ev1

Date:October 24-27, 2010
Location: Sheraton San Diego Hotel and Marina, San Diego, CA
Organizer: Digital Pathology Association (DPA)

Why Attend Pathology Visions

The annual meeting brings together members of the healthcare and scientific community to discuss real-world, practical applications and learn about the latest advances in digital pathology. Choose from presentations on major topics in focused tracks: Clinical and Research & Drug Development. Special topic areas within these tracks will include Education, IT, and more.

Who Should Attend

If you are involved or interested in the exciting world of digital pathology, Pathology Visions is the conference for you. The annual meeting is intended for health care professionals involved in delivering pathology, including:

• Clinical pathologists
• Veterinary/Tox pathologists
• Pharmaceutical/biotech researchers
• Laboratory technicians, managers, and directors
• Pathology educators
• Histologists
• Healthcare IT professionals

All attendees will be enriched through comprehensive presentations, stimulating discussions and workshops, poster sessions, and the Pathology Visions Exhibit Hall.

For more information and registration visit:

http://www.pathologyvisions.com

Pathology Informatics Boston — A fully digital, pathology conference

Posted on October 11, 2010 by ev1

Today's post is guest written by Dr. Steven Potts, MBA, CEO of Flagship Biosciences. My many thanks to Steve for his thoughtful commentary and personal thoughts on the meeting. Comments on your experiences are welcome if you attended the meeting.

As someone who enjoys fishing high mountain streams and rivers, a great place to find fish is at the convergence of multiple streams, where the interacting currents churn new nutrients and food up to the surface. Pathology Informatics combined three streams -- Advancing Information Management in the Clinical Laboratory (AIMCL) and Advancing Pathology Informatics, Imaging and the Internet (APIII), which merged upstream previously, and Lab InfoTech Summit, a LIS oriented conference. The convergence was brilliant, and brought new ideas into this event.

For North American adopters of digital pathology, there are now two leading conferences, Pathology Visions in San Diego and Pathology Informatics. Pathology Informatics was clearly a product of years of collaboration, dialog, and competition in the Academy, an academic-led conference. It is likely that Path Visions will be driven by industry and Path Informatics by the Academy. What a great time for both conferences, and it will be good for the pathology community to continue to have distinctions between them.

Digital pathology and whole slide imaging was a key part of the conference, but not the central focus. This is also healthy, the goal is a fully digital, pathology laboratory, not digital pathology by itself. Whole slide images are part of the lab, but must fit into other technologies covered at this conference, like LIS integration, integrated databases, workflow, sample tracking, and integration with radiology.

My conference highlight was the Histopathology Image Analysis (HIMA) session on Sunday afternoon. It was a packed eight hours of leading innovators in pathology image analysis. The churning of new ideas by the multiple university collaborations in computer science and pathology departments are clearly bearing fruit. The bottleneck is larger annotated sample sets, but impressive inroads are being made on new pattern recognition techniques on hard problems (automated Gleason scoring will cause any image analysis scientist to go running back to the IHC ER/PR/HER2 refuge for cover). The continuing need for these exciting techniques is for validation on larger datasets, and this will require vision and funding to produce these large databases (are you listening, granting agencies?).

It was also great to see more usage of the technologies in pharmaceutical clinical trials, as pharma/biotech will continue to be the playground where new companion diagnostics tests are developed. It was impressive to hear of multiple academic medical centers collaborating in pathology and computer science. The new tests will not likely be as “easy” as ER/PR/HER2, so it is great to see many innovative image analysis ideas. Unfortunately, despite the conference being very well attended, and located near Cambridge, the current biotech center of the world, there were few pharma image analysis attendees. But this is not the fault of the content nor program, people have to find out they missed the party, to motivate attendance the following year. 🙂

There were a number of exciting software innovations by university researchers, ranging from image analysis to QA algorithms for scanning quality. I would encourage the community to think about the distribution of their ideas, as the first thing we want to do when reading a image analysis publication is to try out the technique on our own slides. A number of vendors now have software development kits that allow extensions and other approaches for getting technology into the hands of the users. Whatever route is taken, allowing users to be able to access the software is as important as the publication itself. This is what made academic gene/protein sequence bioinformatics so powerful was the ability to get the technology quickly into the hands of the users.

The electronic poster presentation sessions were well-done, and covered a broad range of topics. Not having to print a poster at Kinko's late at night is a definite personal benefit, although the interaction of a powerpoint presentation to a large audience is certainly much different from a one-on-one discussion in front of a large paper poster. I see a parallel to moving from glass to digital slides in pathology presentations, certainly makes life easier, but it does fundamentally change the communication dynamics.

This conference represented a major step forward in pathology convergence, particularly between pathology and computer science. The rivers from other modalities, including radiology and cytometry (!) can wait until later years downstream for integration. My personal opinion is that a fully digital, pathology lab will be a bigger, more immediate benefit to the patient than the pathology labs sucked (or suckered) into radiology PACS systems.

My compliments to all involved with Pathology Informatics. I look forward to next year!

Steve Potts

Digital Pathology Services

vRad to acquire NightHawk

Posted on October 11, 2010 by ev1

EDEN PRAIRIE, MN – Virtual Radiologic (vRad), a national radiology practice and developer of radiologist workflow technology, will acquire competitor NightHawk Radiology in a $170 million deal.

Scottsdale, Ariz.-based NightHawk Radiology (NASDAQ: NHWK), provides radiology solutions to radiology groups across the country. vRad will acquire all of the outstanding common stock of NightHawk Radiology Holdings, Inc. for $6.50 per share in cash, which is double NighHawk's closing stock price of $3.25 per share.

The combination of vRad and NightHawk will result in enhanced services to radiology groups and hospitals across the country, accelerating vRad's stated commitment to optimize radiology's critical role in the delivery of patient care, vRad executives said. The combined entity will have 325 radiologists serving nearly 2,700 healthcare facilities across all 50 states and reading approximately 6 million studies annually. More than 75 percent of the affiliated radiologists will be fellowship-trained subspecialists.

"Local radiology practices and hospitals are under intense pressure to deliver the highest quality care in the most efficient manner possible," said vRad President and CEO Rob Kill. "The need for expanded access, improved quality, and reduced costs is clear. Both vRad and NightHawk have been delivering these benefits in partnership with local radiologists for many years."

"We are pleased to deliver significant, immediate value to our stockholders through this transaction," said NightHawk President and CEO David Engert. "The combination of our collective assets will enable us to better meet our clients' rapidly expanding needs and will enhance our ability to partner with local radiologists to address the needs of local hospitals, physicians and the patients they serve."

Upon the completion of the transaction, Kill will continue to serve as president and CEO of the combined organization. Engert will remain as a board adviser following the close of the transaction. The remainder of the leadership team will be drawn from the management teams of both companies.

Company executives expect the transaction will be completed in the first quarter of 2011, subject to customary closing conditions, including the approval of NightHawk's stockholders.

Aperio’s CMO wins Pathologist of the Year

Posted on October 11, 2010 by ev1

Jared N. Schwartz, MD, PhD, FCAP, Selected as 2010 Pathologist of the Year by the College of American Pathologists

NORTHFIELD, Ill., Sept. 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Jared N. Schwartz, MD, PhD, FCAP, of Charlotte, N.C., was named the 2010 Pathologist of the Year at a ceremony held on September 26, 2010, in Chicago at CAP '10 — THE Pathologists' Meeting™.

Dr. Schwartz received the award, the College of American Pathologists' highest honor, in recognition for his strong leadership of the College during his term as president from 2007 to 2009, as well as his tireless contributions to the CAP over the years by serving as a member and chair of numerous committees and councils, including the International, Compensation, Finance, Strategic Planning, and National Meeting Planning Committees and the Council on Scientific Affairs.

"It is always an honor to receive the recognition of one's peers, and I thank you for this award," said Dr. Schwartz. "I met so many incredible people that otherwise would never have crossed my path, and I learned that we all have something to contribute to improve the common good."

Dr. Schwartz has held numerous leadership positions within the College, having served as CAP president-elect and secretary-treasurer. He also served as chair of both the Finance Committee and the Ad-Hoc Task Force on National Preparedness. He has been an active member of numerous other CAP ad hoc committees, as well. Dr. Schwartz is a longtime member of the CAP Spokespersons Network, and he currently serves as an alternate delegate for the World Association of Societies of Pathologists and Laboratory Medicine (WASPaLM).

Previously, Dr. Schwartz was president of the CAP Foundation Board, as well as a member of the CAP/JCAHO Lab Committee and the Microbiology Resource Committee. In addition, Dr. Schwartz served as chair of the Council on Scientific Affairs, the CAP Web Strategy Task Force, and the Program and Program Evaluation Committee.

Dr. Schwartz is the chief medical officer for Aperio Technologies, Inc., and he currently serves as a consulting professor in the Department of Pathology at Stanford University in California. Prior to his position with Aperio, Dr. Schwartz was the director of the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Presbyterian Healthcare in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he served as a staff pathologist and chief of the medical staff. At Presbyterian Healthcare, he chaired the Pathology Peer Review and was a member of the Executive Committee of the Medical Board, the Cancer Center Strategic Planning Committee, the Breast Cancer Advisory Committee, and the CEO Physician Leadership Group. He previously was a medical examiner in Durham County, North Carolina.

Dr. Schwartz earned his BS in microbiology and his MSc in mycology from The Ohio State University in Columbus. He received his MD from Duke University Medical School in Durham, followed by his PhD in pathology from Duke University Graduate School. Dr. Schwartz completed his internship, fellowship, and residency at Duke University Medical Center in the Department of Pathology, where he also served as chief resident from 1976-1977.

The College of American Pathologists is a medical society serving more than 17,000 physician members and the laboratory community throughout the world. It is the world's largest association composed exclusively of board-certified pathologists and is widely considered the leader in laboratory quality assurance. The College is an advocate for high-quality and cost-effective patient care.

SOURCE: College of American Pathologists

Digital Pathology Association to Host Sixth Annual Pathology Visions Conference

Posted on October 11, 2010 by ev1

Industry Thought Leaders Gather to Learn About Advances in Digital Pathology

The Digital Pathology Association (DPA), a non-profit organization committed to the advancement of digital pathology applications in healthcare, invites interested pathology professionals to join them for the sixth annual Pathology Visions conference, to be held October 24-27 in San Diego, CA, at the Sheraton Hotel and Marina.

Pathology Visions brings together pathologists and industry thought leaders for a showcase of the latest in digital pathology technology and applications in healthcare. Registrants will participate in three days of multi-track educational sessions covering innovative topics in digital pathology, white paper sessions, roundtable discussions, scientific poster sessions, workshops, networking events, and the Pathology Visions Exhibit Hall, in which product solutions from the leading digital pathology providers in the industry will be featured.

“Pathology Visions provides a unique forum for all types of healthcare professionals and service providers interested in learning about digital pathology solutions and applications,” said Dirk G. Soenksen, president of the Digital Pathology Association. “We are excited to have a dynamic program with such a distinguished group of speakers this year from a broad range of digital pathology interest areas.”

Sylvia Asa is the Keynote Speaker for Pathology Visions 2010. She is Pathologist-in-Chief and Medical Director of the Laboratory Medicine Program at the University Health Network. As head of the largest pathology department in Canada, Dr. Asa has made innovative changes to the practice of the discipline, with emphasis on subspecialization, automation, electronic initiatives and telepathology.

In addition, over 35 breakout sessions will cover a variety of applications in the topic areas of Clinical, Research, Informatics, Education, and IT. A sampling of session topics include:

Validating digital slides for clinical use: when is image quality good enough?
IT issues to consider when implementing telepathology links with remote locations
Validation of digital pathology applications in regulated study environments
Developing quantitative tissue-based assays to assess target inhibition in oncology drug discovery and development
The histopathology lab as an imaging engine: automation, workflow, and quality assurance in support of universal whole-slide imaging
Implementation of subspecialty whole-slide image teaching sets for pathology residency education

A detailed agenda for the conference, including session descriptions and registration information for Pathology Visions is available at www.pathologyvisions.com. For additional information contact Jennifer Levy at (760) 539-1192.

About the DPA

The mission of the Digital Pathology Association is to facilitate education and awareness of digital pathology applications in healthcare. Members will be encouraged to share best practices and promote the use of the technology among colleagues in order to demonstrate efficiencies, awareness, and its ultimate benefits to patient care. For additional information about sponsorship and membership opportunities, visit the association’s website at: http://www.digitalpathologyassociation.org.

If you would like more information, please contact Michael F. Ward at (317) 816-1619 or email info@digitalpathologyassociation.org.

Clinical pathology laboratories will soon archive digital pathology images in their hospitals’ PACS

Posted on October 11, 2010 by ev1

September 27, 2010 Dark Report:

New Digital Pathology DICOM Standards Will Expand Pathologists’ Use of Whole Slide Images

Digital pathology moves one step forward toward true “plug and play” with the recent approval of the DICOM supplement 145. These are the technical specifications that support whole-slide digital pathology images. Approval of these standards now makes it possible for clinical laboratories and pathology groups to store digital pathology images in a form that is compatible with the same DICOM archive systems used by hospitals and other providers to store radiology images.

Transforming Clinical Lab Middle Managers into Top-Performing Team Contributors!

Posted on October 11, 2010 by ev1

Send your lab’s best management talent and most promising young leaders to this two-day intensive!

Transforming Lab Middle Managers into Top-Performing Team Contributors!

Laboratory Managers Leadership Workshop Coming this fall to a city near you:

Four Great Cities! Four Convenient Dates!

October 12-13, 2010
Baltimore Hilton Baltimore BWI Airport Hotel

October 26-27, 2010
San Francisco Hilton San Francisco Airport Hotel

November 2-3, 2010
Chicago DoubleTree Chicago O'hare

November 16-17, 2010
Miami Hilton Garden Inn Miami Airport Hotel

Meet Your Leader and Guide

Jeff Smith brings over 20 years of experience as an executive in human resources and operations in both for-profit and not-for-profit organizations. He currently works with Slone Partners providing Leadership Development for Laboratory Professionals and teaches for Titan Management University. Smith was a key team member in the transformation of the management culture at topperforming Carilion Laboratories in Roanoake, Virginia, and worked for Capital One. As Director of Human Resources for Carilion Labs, he had a seminal role in designing and driving culture change, implementing sucession planning, and creating coaching tools for laboratory leaders. Smith has earned high marks from laboratory professionals who participated in recent lab management educational programs offered by THE DARK REPORT. He teaches a collaborative approach that helps laboratory managers, directors, and administrators determine their vision, then craft a plan for achieving this vision in their professional and personal lives. His area of expertise in HR includes: organizational development, organizational change, succession planning, executive coaching, team building, leadership development, and recruiting. Jeff graduated cum laude with a BBA from James Madison University in management and history. He holds an MA from George Washington University in Human Resource Development. Additionally, Jeff graduated from Georgetown University with an Executive Coaching and Leadership certificate and became a fellow of the Advisory Board in 2006. Jeff is a certified Professional Coach (PCC) by the International Coaching Federation.

It's our Super-Special Tuition for the Extra-early Bird! Register by August 1st, 2010 and your tuition will be only:

$995.00

Full Registration is normally:

$1,495.00

Who Should Attend

Workshop is appropriate for up-and-coming middle managers, senior managers, and administrators; any lab manager tasked with achieving business goals and boosting staff productivity, such as:

Operational department managers
Clinical department managers
Pathology administrators
Director-level managers, including operations, logistics, IT, sales, marketing, client support
Administrators at all levels
Clinical section managers
Supervisors on the management track
Supervisors at all levels

Two days of hands-on learning, useful case studies, and great networking

New ways to engage your lab’s culture that turbocharge productivity and profits!
Proven methods that motivate lab staff to achieve stretch goals on time and on budget!
Charting your personal and organizational vision—setting a road map for success!
Increase your lab’s productivity by improving your lab’s middle managers’ effectiveness!
How to evaluate your team and identify the barriers to increased performance and profitability
Becoming the better coach: why it works and how to pick your best coaching candidates!
Know your preferred leadership style and how to use it to motivate staff and improve teamwork!
Succession planning essentials: prepare your lab for the coming wave of retiring managers and staff!

Best ways to develop talented staff members with limited time and a bare-bones budget!
Effective methods to retain top producers with a management career path they appreciate!
Simple steps to teach your managers better people-management skills.
Achieving the high-performance culture in your lab: unleashing your managers’ creativity!
Understand how to get the wrong people off your bus!
Secrets to leading Baby Boomer’s, Gen-Xer’s, and Millennials!
It’s all about vision: best ways to align your lab’s growth goals with your personal career path!
Recognize your lab’s superstars and how to energize them to greater achievement!

Aperio to Showcase Digital Pathology Solutions at CAP ’10

Posted on October 11, 2010 by ev1

Company Offering “What’s Your Path?” Digital Pathology Assessment

Aperio, will be demonstrating its digital pathology systems and solutions at the annual College of American Pathologists CAP ‘10 conference to be held September 26-29, 2010 at the Hyatt Regency Chicago.

Aperio, the leading technology innovator in digital pathology with a global installed base of more than 700 total systems in 30 countries, nearly 70% of which are installed within hospitals and reference labs, will be exhibiting in booth #211. The company provides the most comprehensive open-architecture solution for digital pathology, enabling streamlined pathology workflow with integrated instruments, software and services. Their award-winning ScanScope® slide scanning systems, Spectrum Plus^™ image management (PACS) software and SecondSlide®digital slide sharing service increase laboratory efficiency and help organizations improve quality assurance and patient care while achieving more rigorous compliance with CAP and CLIA guidelines.

Company representatives will be offering complimentary individual consultations, with appointment-based assessments available by the company’s chief medical officer, Dr. Jared Schwartz, for organizations interested in learning about the unique benefits of digital pathology. A “What’s Your Path?” consultation will help interested organizations:

Pinpoint digital pathology applications that provide near-term value
Identify return-on-investment (ROI) opportunities
Evaluate illustrative workflow diagrams
Understand intangible benefits in an AP lab environment
Comply with CAP/CLIA guidelines
Determine next steps for experiencing the benefits of digital pathology in your organization

Attendees are encouraged to RSVP for a digital pathology assessment by e-mailing events@aperio.com. Walk-ins are welcome on an as-available basis during exhibit hours.

A kiosk in the exhibit booth will allow attendees to experience Aperio’s SecondSlide digital slide sharing service that enables the secure, encrypted exchange of whole-slide images, photomicrographs, documents and commentary. The SecondSlide digital slide sharing service is presently available to pathologists free of charge; for more information please visit http://www.secondslide.com.

Flagship Biosciences and Visiopharm Announce Joint Partnership in High-Throughput Histoinformatics™

Posted on October 11, 2010 by ev1

European technology leader in histoinformatics™ and American digital pathology services firm announce a partnership for delivering quantitative results faster to pharmaceutical and medical device customers

Whole slide stereology is no longer something that scientists delivering quantitative pathology results can afford to ignore.

Flagstaff, AZ (PRWEB) September 17, 2010

In recognition of the opportunities in Histoinformatics™, covering whole slide stereology and whole slide tissue pattern recognition for improving the measurement of efficacy and toxicity in pharmaceutical and medical device development, two leading firms announce a joint partnership.

Flagship Biosciences LLC is a US based pathologist-owned contract research organization that utilizes whole slide imaging to rapidly deliver quantitative data to its pharmaceutical and medicaldevice customers. Visiopharm is a Denmark basedHistoinformatics™ software company with a leading science pedigree in stereology and image analysis, with patented technology in the emerging area ofwhole slide stereology and in tissue pattern recognition capabilities and workflows.

Flagship Biosciences has selected Visiopharm’s advanced image analysis modules and stereology applications as its primary platform for delivery of quantitative results to pharmaceutical and medical device clients. “The ability to offer advanced digital pathology analysis for efficacy and toxicity measurements is critical to both drug and device development. With the emerging opportunities in whole-slide stereology, we needed a software partner that would allow us to rapidly and effectively analyze large batches of slides, and are very pleased with the Visiopharm software system,” said David Young, President and Chief Pathologist of Flagship Biosciences. “We consider Visiopharm’s software to be the best of breed for advanced image analysis, and also to have the fastest pace of innovation in the industry.”

“Visiopharm has many years of scientific leadership in stereology,” said Steve Potts, CEO of Flagship Biosciences. “Whole-slide stereology is no longer something that scientists delivering quantitative pathology results can afford to ignore. Visiopharm’s patent protected Whole Slide Stereology technology makes stereology several orders of magnitudes faster, more accessible and cost-effective. With these novel innovations, it is only a matter of time until stereology will become widespread and adopted in regular pharmaceutical and device tissue analysis. The biggest surprise we have had in working with Visiopharm is how many of the fundamental technical strengths of stereology can be applied in standard image analysis workflows – the radical improvements in tissue sampling approaches or the sophisticated pre- and post-processing of histology pattern recognition workflows. We see many applications for this technology in common brightfield and fluorescence analysis workflows.”

“We are excited to be working with a pathologist-led digital CRO in the delivery of advanced software solutions,” said Michael Grunkin, CEO of Visiopharm. The Flagship team is unique in the close interaction they have between their pathologists, image analysis experts, regulatory groups, and their customers. Flagship’s ability to deliver image analysis results while working within regulatory guidelines in preclinical toxicology and oncology companion diagnostics helps to expand the use of image analysis and stereology into new areas. With the unique combination of knowledge in our two companies, we will soon be able to provide the software and services required to establish a full-fledged preclinical GLP and 21 CFR 11 clinical trials compliant high-throughput Histoinformatics™ platform for providing end-points based on image analysis /pattern recognition and stereology. We believe this will be very valuable for the biopharmaceutical industry in their endeavor to establish credible scientific data for making critical decisions” added Dr. Grunkin.

In the United States, Flagship Biosciences and Olympus America will be distributing Visiopharm software. Flagship will be assisting with pathologist and image analysis expert training in the use of the software for advanced image analysis workflows. Visiopharm’s expert stereology scientists will collaborate with Flagship in offering whole-slide stereology services.

About Visiopharm

Visiopharm is a leading provider of advanced software for quantitative microscopy for life sciences. Visiopharm software combines the strengths of image analysis and stereology in one platform. International pharmaceutical companies, biotech companies, universities, hospitals and contract research organizations are successfully using Visiopharm software for deriving scientifically, trustworthy data with high information content and outstanding efficiency.

About Flagship Biosciences

Flagship Biosciences LLC is a pathologist-owned company whose mission is to improve tissue assessment in pharmaceutical and medical device development. Flagship’s services include quantitative pathology assessment on-demand, low-cost digital pathology slide scanning, secure hosting, pathologist-supervised IHC and histology placement, and custom image analysis and companion diagnostics development. All of their services are reviewed and supervised by board-certified pathologists.

A Funny, Free Webinar on Image Analysis In Regulated Pathology

Posted on October 11, 2010 by ev1

Sign up today for a free and funny webinar this Thursday, September 23rd at 12 PM EST, provided by http://www.thedigitalpathologywiki.com and it's sponsors titled, "Too Early = Too Late = Too Stupid: The right time to use image analysis in regulated pathology".

Space is limited, register today @ https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/829378304

Overview of Webinar:

The computer is a valuable pathologist tool, but not a patho-droid. In this hopefully humorous hour, you will hear why image analysis will enhance the professions of both veterinary and medical anatomic pathology and how to use this tool effectively.

Clinical and preclinical regulations you need to be aware of, as demystified as possible.
How the computer thinks about image analysis, and how the most common biomarker algorithms work.
Is the computer lying? Practical ways to evaluate algorithm performance.
Putting pathologists back in charge - taming the patho-droid paranoia

Hosted by Steve Potts, CEO of Flagship Biosciences:

Dr. Potts joined Flagship from Aperio, where he was Vice President of Life Sciences. He managed worldwide sales and marketing in the biopharma segment, where his team achieved global adoption by nearly all of the largest pharmaceutical companies. He defined and led the GLP product development and validation services for the use of whole slide images in regulated preclinical and clinical trials studies, as well as the development of image analysis techniques for angiogenesis. Prior to Aperio, he was Head of Bioinformatics and Biostatistics at Quest Diagnostics Nichols Institute, where his team supported the development of In Vitro Diagnostics Multianalyte Assays (IVDMIA) in oncology and other therapeutic areas. He was a product manager at Accelrys, where he created a protein-ligand data management system for medicinal and computational chemists, crystallographers, and biologists to provide structural bioinformatics data across multiple pharmaceutical departments. He earned a Ph.D. and M.S. in Biological Engineering, and an MBA from the University of California at Davis, and a B.S. in Physics from Wheaton College, Illinois. He has over 20 peer-reviewed publications and patents.

Title:		Too Early = Too Late = Too Stupid: The right time to use image analysis in regulated pathology

Date:		Thursday, September 23, 2010

Time:		10:00 AM - 12:00 PM MDT

Space is limited, register today @ https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/829378304

Aperio’s SecondSlide® Digital Slide Sharing Service Exceeds 3,000 Users

Posted on October 11, 2010 by ev1

Rapid Growth Fueled by Improved Turnaround Time, Efficiency and Cost Savings

VISTA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aperio, a global leader in digital pathology for the healthcare and life sciences industries, today announced that its SecondSlide® digital slide sharing service has exceeded 3,000 users.

Launched in 2009, the number of SecondSlide users has increased steadily, with adoption accelerating virally throughout the pathology community and growth soaring 60% since first quarter 2010. Users can easily join the network and access or share digital slides with colleagues in a matter of minutes.

Jared N. Schwartz, MD, PhD, Aperio’s chief medical officer, stated, “SecondSlide is very powerful, especially for cases that need immediate review. It is also an excellent tool for allowing small community hospitals to access sub-specialty expertise located at academic medical centers.”

SecondSlide is a web-based service for pathologists that enables the secure, encrypted exchange of whole-slide images, photomicrographs, documents and commentary. These data reside at a secure global data center “in the cloud,” where they can be readily accessed by authorized parties. The slide sharing service is compatible with a variety of commercially available image capture devices, including whole-slide scanners and digital cameras attached to microscopes.

“In just over a year, SecondSlide has been validated by the global marketplace as a cost-effective and IT-friendly digital pathology solution,” stated Dirk G. Soenksen, CEO of Aperio. “SecondSlide dramatically reduces the time, effort and expense of pathology consultations and facilitates improved quality assurance.”

SecondSlide enables pathologists with subspecialty expertise to expand their consulting practice, and makes access to their knowledge and experience significantly easier for community hospitals and pathology labs located remotely. SecondSlide is also being used extensively for consultations, medical education and publication support. The service provides access to digital slide conferencing and a simple and secure “message board” for each case, allowing the pathology community to engage in dialog and exchange information.

The SecondSlide digital slide sharing service is presently available to pathologists free of charge; for more information please visit http://www.secondslide.com.

CBLPath Launches Best Practice™ Partnership Program

Posted on October 11, 2010 by ev1

Back in May I posted a press release from CBLPath announcing their integrated diagnostics services. This weeks at Pathology Informatics 2010 they have announced their Best Practice Partnership Program. If you are unable to attend the meeting this week in Boston, more details will be showcased next week in Chicago at CAP 2010.

CBLPath's approach to this is interesting. By utilizing their services and expertise from sales to billing, this model will enable community pathologists to partner with CBLPath to grow their practice in a unique model historically for anatomic pathology laboratories, both for community-based groups and traditional large AP laboratories such as CBLPath.

Another factor at force here is the recognized convergence of diagnostic surgical pathology, digital pathology and molecular pathology. I think there is a realization now that these services enable one another through convergence and each is enhanced by the others. My feelings from Boston in one word is: convergence. Digital pathology, surgical pathology, image analysis, workflow, image delivery and fast rendering are all starting to finally converge towards increased adoption for diagnostic surgical pathology. More on this to follow.

Full press release below from CBLPath:

Enabling revenue growth, enhancing patient care for community-based pathologists

Community-based pathologists have been watching specialty anatomic pathology laboratories erode their market share. These national labs have a significant advantage due to access to technology and electronic connectivity, and service features which are driving pathology out of the local community and into their centralized laboratories. Today, combined with their historically rich local relationships, community-based pathologists have an advantage of their own – CBLPath’s Best Practice™ Partnership Program.

The Best Practice Partnership Program is comprised of a full range of business and technology services enabling community-based pathologists to more successfully compete against sub-specialized, larger, centralized testing laboratories. The program consists of five components: Sales and Marketing; Information Technology through LabIS™, CBLPath’s proprietary pathology management system; Medical Operations; Lab Operations; and Managed Care and Billing.

“Our business has experienced tremendous growth since its inception,” said Tom Curtis, CBLPath’s Vice President of Marketing. “Our growth is attributed to the same five components we are offering our clients through Best Practice. By becoming a Best Practice Partner, community-based pathologists can enhance the level of patient care they provide with the resources of a national reference laboratory behind them.”

CBLPath has embraced the industry convergence of anatomic, molecular and digital pathology. The organization is providing its Partners with 400 employees, more than 30 of which are board-certified sub-specialty pathologists, access to accurate, definitive molecular testing and landmark digital pathology systems. Through Best Practice, community-based pathologists are able to provide better medicine to their patients and a wider breadth of service to their own clients.

“While other centralized labs are competing with the local pathologist for business, CBLPath recognizes a natural synergy between our lab and the local pathologist,” said David Bryant, CBLPath’s President and Chief Commercial Officer. “We created the Best Practice Partnership Program to empower local pathologists to thrive in this competitive market, keeping medicine local.”

CBLPath will showcase the Best Practice Partnership Program at the CAP ’10 meeting next week in Chicago. For more information about Best Practice, visit http://www.CBLPath.com/bestpractice.

About CBLPath

CBLPath is a national specialty lab offering a full convergence of anatomic, molecular and digital pathology services. The company provides a one-stop solution for comprehensive sub-specialized diagnostics, and timely, accurate, patient-centered disease management guidance. Through its Best Practice ™ Partnership Program, CBLPath partners with pathologists to help them grow their practices, while giving them the ability to stay independent and “keep medicine local.” The company also provides sub-specialty physicians access to comprehensive, high-quality testing in their local market. Founded in 1988, CBLPath established a reputation for providing timely, highly accurate diagnoses along with extraordinary customer service and a true patient-centered commitment. For more about the company, please visit http://www.CBLPath.com.

Check Out Definiens New Ad for Tissue Studio 2.0

Posted on October 11, 2010 by ev1

Virtual technology still needs a local pathologist touch – Flagship Biosciences opens digital pathology services office in Boston area

Posted on October 11, 2010 by ev1

Who would have expected that the use of a truly virtual service would lead to customers wanting a pathologist nearby?

Companies such as Flagship Biosciences provide digital pathology services company where they receive glass slides, scan them, run image analysis with pathologist QA, and then have discussions with their biotech clients about what the results mean. This entire service is usually done without any travel or
face-to-face meetings. Flagship Biosciences operates a centralized data storage operation in a highly secure area in Northern Arizona (many of the largest data storage providers like GoDaddy.com are based in low-cost Arizona or Nevada). It shouldn't matter that most of their clients are on the other end of the nation, either in Cambridge, Massachusetts or the New Jersey/Philadelphia pharma corridor. It shouldn't matter...but it does.

For some time now they have found that despite the virtual nature of digital pathology, biotech researchers still want the pathologist "down-the-hall". Looking at a slide together and understanding what a particular efficacy or toxicology effect means. Much of this is trust in the pathologist. This is not a surprise, the technology is digital PATHOLOGY, not DIGITAL pathology -- like bicycling, it is the cyclist that matters more than the bike.

To establish trust still means building relationships, and this is still easiest to happen with local interactions. Studies normally start with a few slides, discussing the best approaches for quantitation -- optimizing stains, software techniques, histology preparation, etc. Only once both the researcher and pathologist are convinced the measurement approach is going to work do they move to larger studies. This means actually a lot of travel and personal interactions, so the customer knows what they are doing, and Flagship Biosciences knows that the biology to be measured is in line with their customer's therapeutic development goals.

To leverage the technology's virtual advantages, but still maintain personal interaction, they are trying something new. If it works, it is a window into the pathologist's office of the future. Their new office in the Boston suburbs has three advantages -- a board-certified pathologist, a technician and a scanner. The pathologist supervises all aspects of the work. The technician performs much of the laborious image analysis steps (especially with pattern recognition and large studies, there is a lot of manual work involved in QA'ing what the computer finds). The scanner is there locally to get the results back to the customer as soon as possible.

Perhaps your city my be the next site for a scanning biotech center if the Boston Flagship Biosciences experiment is successful.

Press release below:

New office offers local access for Cambridge biotech companies to pathologist, technician, scanning and image analysis

Flagstaff, AZ – September 13, 2010 – Flagship Biosciences LLC, a provider of digital pathology services, has opened a local digital pathology office in the Boston suburbs to better support the growing demand for local quantitative histopathology services. The office is staffed by a board-certified pathologist, a scanning and image analysis technician, and digital pathology scanners.

“While digital pathology has the remarkable ability to remove geographic barriers, Flagship’s Cambridge area customers have expressed interest in local access to quantitative histopathology services,” said Dr. Frank Voelker, DVM, DACVP, who leads the new office. The ability for pharmaceutical researchers to sit down in person and discuss study designs and image analysis approaches in tissue with a local pathologist is very helpful. While our customers can view all of our tissue results remotely on each slide via a web-based portal, there is still no replacement for individual interaction in person. Many of these studies contain hundreds of glass slides, and being able to teach and share information with our Cambridge area customers can be very useful.”

Dr. Frank Voelker leads the Boston Flagship office, and has had a distinguished career in pathology in the Boston area, including 12 years at Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research, where he was founder and head of the Tissue Biomarker Laboratory and later Section Head of the Marker Localization and Assays Group.

“We believe this type of laboratory office for quantitative pathology work is the wave of the future, said Dr. David Young, DVM, DABT, DACVP, President of Flagship Biosciences. “Rather than pathologists setting up an office with a microscope and boxes of glass slides, the Flagship office includes a board-certified pathologist, with a digital workspace of image analysis tools and a web-based portal. A technician who helps with the scanning and image analysis is part of the pathologist’s office of the future”.

The new Flagship Office opened in September in Quincy, Massachussetts. It is part of a general trend of movement of biotech companies into the Boston suburbs.

About Digital Pathology

Digital pathology is the use of whole slide scanning rather than glass slides for analysis of tissue. The technology facilitates remote and distributed pathology environments, and is considered a transforming technology within the discipline of anatomic pathology. The use of whole slide images not only removes geographic barriers, but also allows for computer assisted quantitative analysis. This is an advantage that can be tremendously helpful in making efficacy and toxicity measurements more reproducible and accurate in pharmaceutical drug development, especially in discovery science and oncology companion diagnostics programs.

About Flagship Biosciences

Flagship Biosciences is a pathologist-owned company whose mission is to improve tissue assessment in pharmaceutical and medical device development. Flagship’s services include quantitative pathology assessment on-demand, low-cost digital pathology slide scanning, secure hosting, pathologist-supervised IHC and histology placement, and custom image analysis and companion diagnostics development. All services are reviewed and supervised by board-certified pathologists.

Leica Microsystems Extends its Product Portfolio in Virtual Microscopy

Posted on October 11, 2010 by ev1

(Nanowerk News) With its unprecedented scanning speed and top-quality on-screen imaging, the Leica SCN400 Slide Scanner has already set new standards in virtual imaging. Through the acquisition of Genetix Ltd. at the beginning of this year, Leica Microsystems is now able to considerably expand its solutions offering. With the software solutions Ariol and SlidePath, Leica Microsystems now adds the ability to store, manage, analyze, and report on digital images created with the Leica SCN400 Slide Scanner or the Leica DM6000 B Research Microscope.

High throughput solution for in vitro diagnostics: Ariol on the Leica SCN400

Ariol on Leica SCN400 combines leading scanning technology with advanced analysis experience.

Combining Ariol with the Leica SCN400 Slide Scanner provides a complete solution for laboratories dealing with a high volume of slides. The product is a high throughput solution for biomarker assessment. Ariol on Leica SCN400 combines leading scanning technology with advanced analysis experience, giving the customer the good feeling to get the best product in all respects. From sample to result, Leica Microsystems is striving to provide the total histology solution and be the pathologist's integrated partner in every step of the process.

Web-enabled image handling and e-learning: SlidePath on the Leica SCN400

SlidePath software on the Leica SCN400 Slide Scanner opens the world of image and data handling in a flexible and powerful web-enabled solution. With the Digital Image Hub (DIH) module from SlidePath, Leica Microsystems provides the complete end-to-end solution for virtual microscopy, especially optimized to provide rapid whole slide imaging coupled with an online management solution that can handle multiple formats including DICOM and other standard imaging formats. DIH is also designed for use in research under the guideline of regulatory bodies, such as preclinical research or toxicological studies, which profit from multiple features especially designed for this customer group. Furthermore, DIH can be combined with diverse specialized software modules from SlidePath, such as a special module for TMA management – called OpTMA – or the Digital SlideBox, which provides tools for e-learning.

Pathology workstation for in vitro diagnostics: Ariol on the Leica DM6000 B

A perfect pathology workstation for the assessment of clinical brightfield and fluorescent biomarkers

The in vitro diagnostics software Ariol on the Leica DM6000 B Research Microscope creates a perfect pathology workstation for the assessment of clinical brightfield and fluorescent biomarkers. The system integrates seamlessly into the pathologist's workflow with the means to digitize whole slides or regions of interest. With this solution customers enter the world of Virtual Microscopy while staying with the highest possible flexibility in terms of hardware configurations.

The modules Hersight, ERsight, PRsight and PathVysion are available in the US for in vitro diagnostic use.

Research workstation for fluorescent capture and analysis: Ariol on the Leica DM6000 B Centered on the Leica DM6000 B, the Ariol platform provides the complete solution for capturing, re¬viewing, and analyzing tissue slides labeled with fluorescent markers. TMA as well as full tissue sec¬tions can be captured and analyzed with multiple markers and multiple planes. The powerful analysis tool combined with the versatile hardware creates an ideal workstation for researchers in advanced approaches to fluorescent capturing.

LabCorp to buy Genzyme

Posted on October 11, 2010 by ev1

This has been rumored for some time - LabCorp to buy Genzyme

Laboratory Corp. of America Holdings (LH) has agreed to buy the genetic testing business Genzyme Corp. (GENZ) for $925 million as the medical-testing giant looks to expand into areas such as reproductive medicine and oncology.

Meanwhile, the sale comes as Genzyme has been struggling for more than a year with manufacturing problems at its most important plant, crimping supply of its two biggest drugs. As such, Genzyme in May said planned to shed three noncore operations--including genetic testing--by year's end "strategic alternatives" for three units while repurchasing $2 billion of stock.

Genzyme said Monday that proceeds from the genetic-testing sale would go toward that end. The company's stock-market value is about $18 billion. Divestiture of the other two units--diagnostics and pharmaceutical intermediates--remains on track, said Genzyme.

"This acquisition will substantially expand our capabilities in reproductive, genetic, hematology-oncology and clinical trials central laboratory testing," said David P. King, chairman and chief executive of LabCorp.

Genzyme Genetics performs more than 1.5 million tests a year. It had about $371 million in revenue in 2009.

LabCorp in July said its second-quarter profit rose 13% following prior-year charges as revenue improved more than expected.

Genzyme closed at $70.79 Friday while LabCorp finished at $76.65. Neither traded premarket.

How to get Perfect Abs

Posted on October 11, 2010 by ev1

Some of the biggest things holding you back in your weight loss efforts and your dream of perfect abs are not named 'Protein','Fat' or 'Carbs'.

It's probably not even 'Calories'.

(...well actually it is Calories, but it's just a tiny bit more complex then that.)

No, today I'm talking about two non-calorie things.

Self-Confidence and Perfection.

So let's clear this up right away.

It is a misconception that you have to be 'special' to be successful at weight loss.

This misconception stems from the fact that we like to think that the people giving us diet advice are somehow 'perfect'.

Living perfect lives, with the perfect bodies with the perfect jobs etc.

This creates a situation where it becomes difficult to have confidence in ourselves because we simply do not measure up to these seemingly perfect people.

However, Nobody is perfect.

So here's the truth...

That diet guru with the awesome abs that everyone thinks eats 'perfectly'...He's a chocolate FEIND.

The 600 pound bench presser who constantly gives advice on training..He's had three shoulder surgeries and bone spurs removed from his elbows...as a direct result of his benching.

The Hollywood celebrity touting his super dedicated workout program he used to get in shape for "Kiss of Death 32"...He forgot to tell you he's on various anabolic steroids.

The Paleo Princess who thinks that HFCS is made directly form the essence of the devil...She secretly loves the occasional Coca Cola when at the movies.

The shredded diet guru...who is actually about 60 pounds overweight (the pictures you see on-line are from 2001)

The dozen or so magazine covers you see every month...They are a result of photoshop mastery.

The point is:

No one is perfect, so don't freak out when you discover that you're not perfect either.

The idea of having shredded abs 24/7 without even flexing is just as foreign to the professional fitness model as it is to you.

We need to realize that the illusion of perfection is really, really hurting us and our abilities to reach our goals..or even define them.

So here are some givens:

You are going to have off days of dieting.

You weight loss is going to plateau, or even go up occasionally.

You are going to love the way you look some days, and be less then impressed on other days...and you don't probably look any different on either day.

This doesn't make you a failure, it makes you human...keep at it.

You are going to break a fast early, eat more than you want to, miss a workout, eat a 'bad' food.

The idea of eating perfectly for 4 months worth of hardcore deiting is just plain silly, even for the most dedicated fitness proffesional.

So if you slip, don't worry about it, just keep moving towards your goals.

Remember: No one is perfect.

This makes it a little easier to ramp up the self-confidence.

It's an even playing feild.

Realizing this is a giant step into becoming awesome. Because once you realize that no one is perfect, then you have ZERO reason not to be self-confident.

We're all flawed in our own special way, which of course means we can all be awesome if we choose to be.

As a note...this post was highly influenced by this blog post --> http://bit.ly/b9DzcI

Social Diet Hack

Posted on October 11, 2010 by ev1

My Favorite Diet Hack…

I’d like to let you in on one of my all time favorite ‘diet hacks’

No, it’s not fasting (that’s not really a ‘Diet hack’ – it’s more of a lifestyle)

Actually, it’s scotch.

Yep, good ol’ Scottish Whiskey (Irish is pretty darn good too, but I digress)

So you’re probably wondering how a ounce of the good stuff (neat of course) can be a diet hack?

Simple..

It’ll save you calories…. lots of them.

An ounce of scotch has about 70 Calories. That’s less than a glass of wine (120 ish) and a bottle of beer (140 ish)…but that’s not the ‘Hack’.

The “Hack” is in the social graces of Scotch.

Let’s say you go out for drinks with your friends…guys order beer, the girls order wine and you order a scotch.

Right away, you’ll probably get some looks… mostly because people have this weird idea that an ounce of Scotch has a TON more alcohol in it then a bottle of beer or a glass of wine (which is false, they are all equal).

And this is where the ‘hack’ comes in.

You can ‘nurse’ a glass of scotch for an hour and no one will say anything.

(I’ve never been in the situation where I’ve been nursing a scotch and someone has asked me if I was ‘on a diet’)

In a social setting, for some reason Scotch trumps people’s crazy need to push you to keep up with them when they drink.

So your friends can be 3 beers into the night, or a half bottle of wine..and you can still be nursing your first ounce of alcohol, and no one will say anything.

In a hypothetical situation where you’ve had two ounces of scotch, while your buddy has had 6 beers, you’ve saved yourself well over 500 calories…and a whole bunch of bloating and probably a really crappy morning..

Bottom line – Obviously you could just have a water, but with this diet hack you get to enjoy a Scotch, nice and slow…the way you should enjoy it (Without ice of course)…you drink about 70 Calories while your friends drink hundreds of calories in their beer, wine and assorted mix drinks (Oh and you still get the anti-inflammatory actions of alcohol too, just without any of the extra calories).

In settings like weddings, or awkward family reunions, this could save you hundreds of unneeded calories, while still allowing you to be ’social’.

Again, The obvious ultimate hack is water, but if you’re going to drink, you may as well drink the good stuff (just remember to drink it slow).

Drink Stop Drink

PS- No this is not an excuse to allow alcohol when you are fasting!

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