Hematopathology Practice in the Digital Era: What has Changed?

Hematopathology workflows are complex, since they include numerous data points necessary for guiding further testing, diagnosis, and patient management. The workflows start with complete blood cell counts, with subsequent morphologic evaluation of peripheral blood (PB) and bone marrow (BM). Digital pathology has the potential to revolutionize PB and BM assessment through the implementation of artificial intelligence for assisted and automated evaluation, but there remain major hurdles toward this ultimate goal, such as lack of regulatory oversight, data standardization, insufficient knowledge and training, and resistance to change, among others. This article reviews the current state of digitalization in the hematopathology practice, recent research using machine learning models for automated specimen analysis, outlines the advantages and barriers facing clinical implementation of artificial intelligence, and offers prospective artificial intelligence-driven clinical workflows for efficient and comprehensive clinical workup.