New technology speeds up pathology workflows

Rapid precision-scanning technology to speed up medical diagnoses and help address Australia’s shortage of trained pathologists is being developed at the University of Queensland (UQ).

UQ’s Digital Pathology team is working to replace glass pathology slides with digital slides for faster analysis, distribution and storage. Almost 70 per cent of GP diagnoses are based on pathology tests, and the changes could revolutionise laboratories. The project could also have applications in immunology, histopathology and microbiology.

The group is using UQ’s newest high-performance computer, Wiener, for its work, with the support of UQ’s Research Computing Centre. A fully automated scanning system for immunology tests has already been deployed and is in use in a pathology laboratory.