The HSE has revealed plans to establish a €45 million digital pathology solution in 22 hospitals nationally.
The technology will be introduced in 22 histopathology laboratories, including eight HSE centres of excellence and 14 general hospital laboratory centres.
The HSE is seeking a provider to introduce the solution, which it says will help future-proof the delivery of healthcare.
According to plans published by the Executive: “The Review to Inform the Strategic Direction of Laboratory Medicine (2024) notes that pathology workloads have increased year-on-year, driven by rising cancer incidence, expanded screening programmes, and a greater emphasis on rapid diagnostics in acute and chronic care pathways. The document highlights that many existing laboratory infrastructures and systems are under strain and will require digital transformation to remain viable and efficient.”
The solution will help to improve patient care and deliver a “safe, secure, robust, connected, and sustainable diagnostic cellular digital pathology service fit for the future”, the plans stated.
“The national move towards scanning of histological material for primary diagnosis and more recently, the future proofing for adoption of artificial intelligence/computational pathology to improve the accuracy, reliability, and quality of reports, will benefit the quality of patient care.”
A HSE spokesperson stated that digital pathology will significantly alter the workload for pathologists through optimising time management and workload distribution. With digital systems, pathologists “can manage their caseloads more effectively, focusing on complex cases while automating routine tasks”.
“Digital pathology has been requested by a number of laboratory services, and rather than undertaking these by point solutions, the best way is a single national solution,” added the spokesperson.
The costings are based on rough ‘order of magnitude’ estimates from a number of sources.
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