UniTwain: A Cost-Effective Solution for Lean Gross Imaging

Gross imaging of surgical specimens is paramount for the accurate gross examination and diagnosis of disease. Optimized imaging workflow can facilitate consistently high-quality gross photographs, especially in high-volume, metropolitan hospitals such as ours. Most commercial medical gross imaging technology provides ergonomically well-designed hardware, remotely operated cameras, intuitive software interfaces, and automation of workflow. However, these solutions are usually cost-prohibitive and require a large sum of capital budget.

We applied lean techniques such as value stream mapping (VSM) to design a streamlined and error-free workflow for gross imaging process. We implemented a cost-effective technology, UniTwain, combined with high-resolution webcam to achieve the ideal results.

We reduced the mean process time from 600 min to 4.0 min (99.3% decrease in duration); the median process time was reduced from 580 min to 3.0 min. The process efficiency increased from 20% to 100%. The implemented solution has a comparable durability, scalability, and archiving feasibility to commercial medical imaging systems and costs four times less. The only limitations are manual operation of the webcam and lower resolution. The webcam sensors have 8.2 megapixel (MP) resolution, approximately 12 MP less than medical imaging devices. However, we believe that this difference is not visually significant and the effect on gross diagnosis with the naked eye is minimal.

To our knowledge, this is the first study that utilized UniTwain as a viable, low-cost solution to streamline the gross imaging workflow. The UniTwain combined with high-resolution webcam could be a suitable alternative for our institution that does not plan to heavily invest in medical imaging.