Digital pathology challenge for CMIV

By digitalising microscope images, cancer care can obtain faster and more accurate analyses of tissue samples and thus waiting times for cancer patients can be reduced. SEK 18 million (EUR 2.1 million) is being invested in a project led by the Center for Medical Image Science and Visualization (CMIV) at LiU.

Faced with fierce competition in Sweden, a consortium that includes four county councils - Gävleborg, Jönköping, Kalmar and Östergötland has been chosen to receive a grant of approximately SEK 9 million from the Challenge Driven Innovation programme run by VINNOVA, the Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems. Co-financing partners have contributed in an equal amount. There is currently a great shortage of pathologists, just as workloads increase due to an ageing population. In addition the demand for more specialised diagnostics is intensifying.

“There is an acute need within pathology for increased efficiency combined with continued developments in care and treatment. One way of achieving the required improvements is to utilise digitalisation of the pathological images,” says Anders Persson, director of CMIV.

Digital developments within pathology are still in their infancy. The challenges for the IT tools that will exploit them are great, principally due to the extremely large amounts of image data that need to be processed. A single microscope slide can correspond to several gigabytes in digital format.

It is predicted that digital pathology, when used correctly, could lead to reduced waiting times, higher diagnostic reliability and more cost-effective use of resources as well as better education.

The project will analyse all aspects of pathology that have some connection to digitalisation and create innovative workflows and IT systems. Other collaborators, in addition to CMIV and the four counties, are the medical company Sectra and the research institute Swerea IVF, where experience in efficient workflows in X-ray processing and in the engineering industry are major assets.

“The project represents a launching pad for a long term investment in digital pathology, an area of extreme significance in Sweden and globally, that we believe will continue to expand rapidly,” says Helen Dannetun, Vice-Chancellor of Linköping University.

“The initiative is in line with the successful tradition we have of bringing together top expertise from different areas in unique, interdisciplinary environments.”

Contact:
Project Leader Claes Lundström, CMIV, +46 706-05 50 16

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Related Links

• Center for Medical Image Science and Visualization (CMIV) at LiU  
• Challenge Driven Innovation – VINNOVA (PDF)  
• VINNOVA, the Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems 
• Sectra AB  
• Swerea IVF

Åke Hjelm 2012-09-17