The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact across industries and healthcare in particular - every aspect of it is undergoing change- from diagnosis to treatment and through the entire continuum of care. This has also created an urgency in the healthcare industry, to look for innovative solutions and a boost to faster, efficient application of technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Deep Learning. Pathology is one area which stands to greatly benefit from these applications.
Pathologists today spend significant amount of time observing tissue samples under a microscope and they are facing resource shortages, growing complexity of requests, and workflow inefficiencies with the growing burden of diseases. Their work underpins every aspect of patient care, from diagnostic testing and treatment advice, to the use of cutting-edge genetic technologies. They also have to work together in a multidisciplinary team of doctors, scientists and healthcare professionals to diagnose, treat and prevent illness. With increasing emphasis on sub-specialization, taking a second opinion from specialists, means shipping several glass slides across laboratories, sometimes to another country. This means reduced efficiency and delayed diagnosis and treatment. The current situation has disrupted this workflow.