ABSTRACT

This chapter explains digital pathology as encompassing the entire infrastructure needed to effectively view and manage digital images of tissue sections within a clinical setting; from scanners through to laboratory information systems and digital archiving of specimens. Digital pathology is rapidly translating to the clinic, facilitating multiple advantages compared to traditional histopathology. Digital pathology is, in essence, a disruptive technology that requires a complete overhaul of the workflow of traditional his-topathology departments. The future of digital pathology will undoubtedly include automated image analysis. Many whole-slide scanners now include image analysis software as part of the digital pathology package. The ability of the machine learning algorithms to learn from complex digital pathology images by including texture and context of pixel-based objects has enabled the automatic exclusion of artifact, such as necrosis, and the inclusion of tissue containing features of interest, such as the invasive margin of a tumor.