Banff Digital Pathology Working Group: Going digital in transplant pathology

Area of Science:

• Digital pathology
• Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics
• Computational pathology

Background:

• The Banff Digital Pathology Working Group (DPWG) was formed around the 14th Banff Conference in 2019.
• Discussions identified key issues for digital pathology implementation and research.

Purpose of the Study:

• To establish a working group focused on digital pathology within the Banff framework.
• To identify and address critical challenges in the field of digital pathology.

Main Methods:

• Formation of the Banff Digital Pathology Working Group (DPWG).
• Presentations and discussions at the 14th Banff Conference.
• International survey of pathologists regarding digital pathology adoption and tools.

Main Results:

• Whole slide imaging is available in most participating centers (71%).
• Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are utilized in approximately 12% of centers.
• A need for standardization in practice, classification, scoring, and algorithms was highlighted.

Conclusions:

• The Banff DPWG is essential for advancing digital pathology.
• Digitalization is a prerequisite for AI and precision diagnostics.
• Future contributions will focus on standardization and AI integration in pathology.