As we kick off this third season of digital pathology today our guest is Dr. Kevin Sandeman, from the Region Skane in Sweden, who is going to be taking us through their digital transformation.
The Region Skane covers a population of over 1.4 million people, involves four health care systems including two academic and two community centers. The caseload is over 110,000 cases per year - generating over 680,000 scanned slides. This is a wonderful story, and the benefits are maybe not what you would expect.
In addition to the obvious benefits of not having to he tethered to a microscope, according to Dr. Sandeman, the number one benefit resulting from the digital transformation is “Peace of Mind.”
The departments in the region enjoyed much higher quality in terms of histologic preparations and output, enhanced engagement and understanding among the histotechnologists, reduction of hystertechnologist FTE requirements and complete elimination of the need to work overtime. Turnaround time for case reporting has dropped an astounding 33% and clinician satisfaction is remarkably increased.
We also talked about some of the challenges in adopting the digital workflow not to mention the IT infrastructure requirements and storage demands but at the top of the list appeared to be the initial pathologist resistance to adopting the digital workflow.
