A system for sharing routine surgical pathology specimens across institutions: the Shared Pathology Informatics...

Area of Science:

• Pathology Informatics
• Biomedical Informatics
• Cancer Research Informatics

Background:

• Pathology specimens are crucial for research but difficult to access across institutions.
• Existing systems lack efficient methods for searching and retrieving paraffin blocks.
• The National Cancer Institute's Shared Pathology Informatics Network (SPIN) program aimed to address this gap.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a novel Web-enabled system for indexing and retrieving pathology specimens across multiple institutions.
• To create a prototype system for identifying paraffin blocks relevant to cancer research.
• To overcome challenges in data sharing while maintaining local control and privacy.

Main Methods:

• Development of a Web-based informatics system with local data control.
• Creation of an eXtensible Markup Language (XML) schema for specimen data.
• Implementation of deidentification methods for pathology reports.
• Utilizing the Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) for automated data coding.
• Establishing robust confidentiality and consent hierarchies.

Main Results:

• The prototype system allows Web-based querying of millions of pathology reports from six institutions.
• Search and retrieval of relevant pathology reports and paraffin blocks are achieved in seconds to minutes.
• Researchers can identify and request specific paraffin blocks from participating institutions.

Conclusions:

• The developed system successfully enables efficient, multi-institutional access to pathology specimens.
• This informatics solution has significant potential to expand annotated tissue availability for cancer and other disease research.
• Future integration with clinical and outcome data will further enhance its research utility.