Royal Philips, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and Paige, New York City, are collaborating to deliver clinical-grade artificial intelligence (AI) applications to pathology laboratories. Starting with Paige Prostate, the AI technologies are aimed at helping pathologists to identify, quantify, and characterize cancer in tissue samples, and to make precise diagnoses more efficiently. They may ultimately improve pathologists’ workflow and treatment planning for patients.

Pathologists play a crucial role in the detection and diagnosis of a broad range of diseases, including cancer. The increasing number of cancer cases in the aging population and rapid advances in personalized medicine have resulted in significant increases in the complexity of pathology diagnostics and the workload imposed on pathologists. Digital images of tissue samples make it possible for pathologists to reach diagnoses more easily on a computer display using advanced imaging analysis and workflow software.

Paige’s AI technology has demonstrated promising results, and the collaboration aims to deliver this kind of technology into routine clinical practice.1 Several pathology laboratories have already converted their glass slide-based workflow to digital, using the clinically approved IntelliSite digital pathology solution from Philips. Once digital images are available, the CE marked Paige Prostate software is applied automatically to detect and localize prostate cancer. This technology provides pathologists with information they can use in their evaluation of prostate biopsies.

“We want to empower pathologists with the latest computational pathology solutions to enhance the diagnosis and treatment of cancer,” says Marlon Thompson, business leader for digital and computational pathology at Philips. “Through our open digital pathology platform approach, we team up with leading computational pathology solution providers, such as Paige, to create the ultimate end-to-end oncology workflow for our customers.”

“Pathology is transforming into a digital discipline and holds a strong promise for using AI solutions to aid, streamline, and enhance decisionmaking,” says Leo Grady, CEO of Paige. “Together with digital pathology providers, starting with Philips, one of the leaders in the clinical digital pathology space, we want to convert this promise into a clinical reality that supports pathologists and their patients.”

For more information, visit Paige and Philips.

Reference

  1. Campanella G, Hanna MG, Geneslaw L, et al. Clinical-grade computational pathology using weakly supervised deep learning on whole slide images. Nat Med. 2019;25(8):1301–1309; doi: 10.1038/s41591-019-0508-1.