Unilabs, a diagnostic services provider, and Proscia, a provider of digital and computational pathology solutions, have announced that the diagnostic group has chosen Proscia’s DermAI* skin pathology solution. The artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled technology will first be deployed in Sweden and then rolled out across other countries where Unilabs serves patients.

“The era of computational pathology is here,” says Christian Rebhan, DrMed, MBA, chief medical and operations officer at Unilabs. “We are designing our diagnostic processes around AI because getting better, faster results to our patients can help to improve outcomes. Our team has seen the power of DermAI’s potential and looks forward to adopting it.”

Unilabs and Proscia established a strategic partnership in March 2021 to study the potential impact of DermAI on the laboratory’s high-throughput skin pathology operations. Based on this evaluation, Unilabs projects a potential decrease in turnaround time of 30% to 40% for cases of melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, compared to its current workflow. This added efficiency, if realized, could enable patients to start treatment sooner, helping to improve outcomes.

Millions of skin biopsies are taken annually, each of which may display one of hundreds of diagnoses. Cases must often be re-routed to the right specialist, resulting in inefficiencies for the laboratory and delays for the patient. Proscia’s DermAI is designed to automatically classify H&E stained dermatopathology slides and highlights the promise of computational skin pathology in driving critical productivity gains. The performance of the technology was demonstrated in one of pathology’s most comprehensive studies to date.

“We are excited to expand our relationship with Unilabs,” says David West, Proscia’s CEO. “Its commitment to innovation for both its pathologists and its patients is second to none, and we look forward to seeing the impact that DermAI can make.”

*DermAI is available for research use only.