Aperio's digital pathology system is being used to support sub-speciality pathology consultations between UCLA medical centre in California and ZHU, a 2,000-bed hospital in Hangzhou, China.
The Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center (UCLA) in Los Angeles, California, has a pool of more than 30 sub-speciality experts in pathology that are available to provide remote medical consultation services to China for unusual and complex cases.
Aperio's patented scanning technology allows pathologists at Hangzhou's Second Affiliated Hospital Zhejiang University (ZHU) to capture a digital slide image at very high resolution of the entire tissue sample on a glass slide and share it with pathology experts at UCLA in a secure web-based environment.
More than 100 cases have been remotely reviewed to date.
The Aperio digital pathology system facilitates the ability to bring expert pathology services to China, improving intra- and inter-observer agreement and ensuring effective treatment to improve patient care.
UCLA and ZHU pathologists also participate in frequent digital slide conferences using the Aperio system to review individual cases.
Pathologists can view annotations on the digital slide image created by other reviewers, while simultaneously adding annotations for others to see.
A common cursor superimposed on the digital slide is visible and can be manipulated by all conference participants.
The hospitals are also conducting multi-disciplinary conferences, where experts across various disciplines (oncology, radiology, surgery) convene to discuss difficult cases.
