A literature review of quality, costs, process-associated with digital pathology

Digital pathology incorporates the acquisition, management, sharing, and interpretation of pathological information, including slides and data, in a digital environment. Digital slides are created using a scanning device to capture a high-resolution image on glass slides for analysis on a computer or a mobile device. Though digital pathology has drastically grown over the last 10 years and has created opportunities to support specialists, few have attempted to address its full-scale implementation in routine clinical practice. To incorporate new technologies in diagnostic processes, it is necessary to study their application, the value they provide to specialists, and their effects on improvements across the entire workflow, rather than studying a particular element. In this study, we aimed to identify what have the current digital pathology systems contributed to the pathological and diagnostic process. We retrieved articles published between 2010 and 2020 from the databases PubMed and Google Scholar. We explored how digital pathology systems can better utilize existing medical data and new technologies within the current diagnostic workflow. While the evidence concerning the efficacy and effectiveness of digital pathology is mounting, high-quality evidence regarding its impact on resource allocation and value for diagnosis is still needed to support clinical diagnosis and policy decision-making.