Patrick Joined PathPresenter as CEO in April 2022 with decades of experience in digital health. PathPresenter offers a platform designed to help hospitals, labs, and pharmaceutical companies streamline pathology workflows to improve diagnostic accuracy and efficiency, and enable the use of AI tools. The company recently announced $7.5 million in series A funding to continue their work.
We hope you enjoy this quick and thoughtful conversation.
M.R. Rangaswami: What is the biggest challenge that labs and hospitals have deploying digital pathology?
Patrick Myles: We find that the biggest challenge is interoperability. Currently, there a) are 20+ different scanner vendors, each with their own image file format, b) a variety of laboratory information systems (the software that runs the pathology labs) that contain the patient and biopsy information, c) many options for storing digital pathology images from on-premise to the cloud, or in a hybrid environment, and finally d) a host of new AI algorithms from many vendors are coming onto the market, each with their own user interface. How do hospitals and labs get all these components to work together to create a seamless workflow?
Ensuring interoperability is the key job that PathPresenter’s image management and viewing platform addresses. We are the much-need workflow layer that brings all these various components together into a seamless solution. We do that by being 100% vendor agnostic, meaning we partner with all 3rd party vendors and integrate their components into our platform. We are continuously filling in the workflow gaps so pathologists can be more productive and efficient, and institutions receive the largest return on their digital investment.
M.R.: How is technology and the advancements of AI changing the pathology landscape?
Patrick: We are really seeing a perfect storm. The image quality of digital images from whole slide scanners is now visually equivalent with what a pathologist sees under the microscope. At the same time, advances in network speeds and storage technologies have made digital case signout not only practical, but scalable. Now, the real boon is coming from AI, which is presenting a once in a generation ability to transform diagnosis and precision medicine. The promise of AI is making digital pathology investment a “must-have” at just about every institution, lab, and pharma company. For the pathologists themselves, some continue to view digital pathology and AI technology cautiously. However, many recognize the compelling benefits and see the inevitability of the new technology. Therefore, they are choosing to explore and leverage it to provide better care for patients, while enhancing their careers and their profession.
M.R.: What is the future of digital pathology and how will that impact hospitals, labs, pharma companies and patients?
Patrick: The immediate future of digital pathology is digitization itself. Currently, approximately 10% of the 1 billion glass biopsies that are produced each year globally are digitized. In the next 5 years, digitization levels will increase to 75%+. This build-out will create many benefits for hospitals, pathologists and patients, ultimately increasing the speed and accuracy of diagnosis. With more hospitals becoming digital, with an increasing number of second opinions and consultations happening, we expect to see a democratization of knowledge taking place, which will be a benefit to patients world-wide, particularly in underserved areas.
Driving the future of digital pathology the most is the development and application of new AI technology. The rapid advancements in large language models, generative AI, and multimodal learning are enabling a convergence of anatomic pathology with molecular pathology, which promises to enhance diagnostic accuracy, streamline workflows, and reduce costs, while providing personalized patient plans, early detection and prevention, improved prognosis, and reduced anxiety for patients.