Dive Brief:

• LabCorp has teamed up with the Mount Sinai Health System to create an AI-enabled digital pathology center of excellence. LabCorp will work to integrate digital pathology into Mount Sinai’s eight hospitals, enabling the remote review of images and surgical slides. 

• Philips is providing the technology for the initiative, which Mount Sinai said may improve clinical outcomes and make its operation more efficient.

•  LabCorp is hoping to fend off competition from Quest Diagnostics and cope with reimbursement pressures that are putting the squeeze on less efficient clinical laboratories.  ​​

Dive Insight:

FDA cleared Philips IntelliSite Pathology Solution (PIPS) under its De Novo pathway in 2017. The product is the first whole-slide imaging system with digital surgical pathology slide review features to come to market in the U.S.

Mount Sinai supported the clearance by participating in a digital pathology performance evaluation of the research version of PIPS ahead of the FDA decision. That experience set the stage for wider use of the version of PIPS cleared for primary diagnostic use.

LabCorp’s move to digital pathology is part of a broader effort to improve the productivity of its diagnostics business and net savings of $200 million.

Working with LabCorp, Mount Sinai will use PIPS at its new Digital and Artificial Intelligence-Enabled Pathology Center of Excellence. The initiative will integrate PIPS into eight Mount Sinai hospitals and select ambulatory care locations. It will initially be used to interpret tests for prostate cancer and tumors of the head and neck. Mount Sinai aims to use digital pathology across its system.  

Mount Sinai also plans to enable its pathologists to consult on cases interpreted by Dianon Pathology, a LabCorp-owned specialty lab with facilities across the U.S. The expansion will see Mount Sinai specialists inform cases involving patients at other sites outside their base in New York.

"Digital pathology gives us the unprecedented opportunity to expand our services to the community at large, and engage members of our department, considered key opinion leaders in their field, to provide expert diagnostic opinions in complex cases," Carlos Cordon-Cardo, chairman of the Department of Pathology, Molecular and Cell-Based Medicine at Mount Sinai, said in a statement.

Mount Sinai expects digital pathology, when used in conjunction with predictive, AI-based tests, to help optimize treatment efficacy, thereby improving clinical outcomes while improving efficiency.

The implementation is underway and Mount Sinai expects to start using the system in the coming months. LabCorp is leading the integration of the system, drawing on the experience gained at four of its laboratories. The clinical laboratory network plans to add digital pathology capabilities to more of its sites in the coming year.