21(st) century workflow: A proposal.

Area of Science:

• Digital Pathology
• Medical Informatics
• Computational Pathology

Background:

• Digital pathology adoption is slow due to a lack of clear implementation strategies for pathologists.
• Current applications are limited to niche areas like telepathology and immunostain interpretation.
• Effective integration of digital imaging technology into daily pathology workflows remains a challenge.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a conceptual framework for developing effective computer-assisted pathology sign-out systems.
• To introduce pathologists' computer-assisted diagnosis (pCAD) as a hypothetical intelligent system.
• To facilitate progress in adopting digital pathology and automation strategies.

Main Methods:

• Outlining a proposal for computer-assisted pathology sign-out systems.
• Presenting pathologists' computer-assisted diagnosis (pCAD) as an intelligent system concept.
• Detailing an example of automated digital pathology for breast cancer lymph node sign-out.

Main Results:

• A conceptual framework is provided to guide the development of computer-assisted pathology systems.
• The proposed pCAD system integrates advanced image analysis and existing digital pathology data.
• An automated breast cancer lymph node sign-out example demonstrates practical application.

Conclusions:

• The proposed framework can accelerate the development of helpful computer-assisted pathology sign-out systems.
• Effective integration of digital pathology data and image analysis is crucial for automation.
• This conceptual approach aims to foster communication and identify new automation strategies in digital pathology.