Bridging distances with digital pathology at Sonic Healthcare in Australia
- By Philips
- Featuring
- March 03 2025
- 2 min read
Australia has nearly 2,000 pathologists for a population of 25.5 million people spread across 7.7 million square kilometers. Bridging the distance is a challenge. Sonic Healthcare is an internationally renowned healthcare provider headquartered in Sydney, Australia, with specialist operations that include laboratory medicine/pathology. Connecting results from regional pathology labs to providers in a timely fashion is crucial to enhancing care for the people of Australia.
At-a-glance:
- High-resolution digital images are reducing turnaround time to pathology results.
- Digital pathology enables a digital image to be prepared and quickly and reliably sent, overcoming the delay caused by sending physical slides
- Collaboration during multi-disciplinary meetings is made easier by the use of digital slides
- The solution helps prepare for future technologies, such as the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms in pathology
Sullivan Nicolaides Pathology is using the Philips Digital Pathology Solution (Digital Pathology Solution — IntelliSite) to reduce turnaround times and improve care. This highly scalable digital pathology solution with proven technology enhances productivity with high-resolution digital images, collaborative features and case management tools.
Greatly reducing turnaround time in a wide geographic area so that patient care can be improved
“Because Australia is so large it’s challenging to have a concentration of pathology expertise where and when needed. Small laboratories are dispersed across a vast geographical area. In many cases immunohistochemical stains and special stains have to be ordered after the primary diagnosis, and for pathologists working in regional labs this involves substantial delays in sending physical slides. Digital pathology enables them to prepare a digital image and send this automatically, overcoming the delay caused by sending physical slides.”
Digital pathology enables us to prepare a digital image and send it automatically, overcoming the delays caused by sending slides.
“Digital imaging dramatically improves turnaround time and eases workflow and collaboration. Previously when attending multi-disciplinary meetings, the team would take photographs or even the actual slides along with a microscope. Using Philips digital pathology, they are instead able to quickly show the entire digital slide, zooming in to display all desired information on-screen and conveying more information in a convenient way that is valued by their physicians.”
“In many cases the team must retrieve material that may have been reported months or even years previously, and the storage of glass slides off-site created significant delays in the retrieval of this material. Digital pathology enables them to retrieve slides in a matter of minutes and share them virtually in real time.”
