www.cost.esf.org

European Cooperation in the field of Scientific and Technical Research

COST is supported by the EU RTD Framework Programme

ESF provides the COST Office through an EC contract

Marcial García RojoChair. Hospital General de Ciudad Real / Spain

Vytenis Punys Kaunas University of Technology / Lithuania

Janina Slodkowska Military Institute of the Health Services, Warsaw / Poland

Thomas Schrader University of Applied Sciences, Brandenburg / Germany

Christel Daniel INSERM, Université René Descartes, Paris / France

Bernd BlobeleHealth Competence Center, U. Regensburg / Germany

Digital Pathology in Europe: Coordinating Patient Care and Research Efforts

COST Action IC0604

www.cost.esf.org

European Cooperation in the field of Scientific and Technical Research

COST is supported by the EU RTD Framework Programme

ESF provides the COST Office through an EC contract

EURO-TELEPATH. Telepathology Network in EuropeCOST Action IC0604

Start date: 05/11/2007End date: 05/11/2011

Year: 2

16 action parties:CH, CY, DE, ES, FI, FR, GR, HR,

IT, LT, NL, NO, PL, PT, RS, UK

Digital Pathology in Europe: Coordinating Patient Care and Research Efforts

http://www.conganat.org/eurotelepath/http://www.conganat.org/eurotelepath/

COST is supported by the EU RTD Framework Programme

ESF provides the COST Office through an EC contract3

Agenda

• 15:00-15:10. Introduction. COST Action IC0604

• 15:10-15:40. Informatics Standardization and IHE        Christel Daniel

• 15:40-16:10. Business processes in Pathology        Thomas Schrader (discussion on line)

• 16:10-16:20. Discussion: Architecture of a European distributed health care environment for patient care and research in Anatomic Pathology. Bernd Blobel.

• 16:20-16:40 Coffee break

• 16:40-17:10. Handling whole slide microscopy images in PACS        Vytenis Punys

• 17:10-17:30. Virtual microscopy scanning technology        Marcial García Rojo

• 17:30-18:00. Application of automated quantitative analysis in Pathology        Janina Slodkowska

http://www.conganat.org/eurotelepath/http://www.conganat.org/eurotelepath/

COST is supported by the EU RTD Framework Programme

ESF provides the COST Office through an EC contract4

Action participants

45

75

97

16

24

0

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

YR 1 YR 2 YR 3 YR 4

Total of individualparticipants

ESRs

Female

Non-COST Countries

(including WG experts)(including WG experts)

COST is supported by the EU RTD Framework Programme

ESF provides the COST Office through an EC contract5

Use of COST instrumentsYR 1 YR 2 YR 3 YR 4

No. of MC / WG meetings

5 6 next

No. of STSMs 1 6

No. of workshops / conferences

3 4

No. of joint publications

5 10

No. of training schools

0 1

GASG (activities)

Posters, website

Posters, website

COST is supported by the EU RTD Framework Programme

ESF provides the COST Office through an EC contract6

Scientific context and objectives (1/2)• Background / Problem statement: Adequate technological

framework for the management of multimedia electronic healthcare records – Informatics applied to Anatomic Pathology – Research on standards to represent, interpret, browse, retrieve digital

medical images – World wide search engine– Collaborate with Standardisation bodies with previous research

conclusions. • Main challenges are educational, technological, and

complexity of health information systems.• Brief reminder of MoU objectives: Evaluate and validate the

common technological framework and communication standards required to access, transmit and manage digital medical records by pathologists and other medical specialties in a networked environment.

COST is supported by the EU RTD Framework Programme

ESF provides the COST Office through an EC contract7

Scientific context and objectives (2/2)• Research directions:

1. Model for pathology and other hospital information systems2. Automation procedures in Pathology. Best technology available

and under research.3. Scanning solutions for Pathology microscopic slides.4. Technological solutions for compression and storage problems

with large image files. 5. Virtual slide standard viewer specifications which allow efficient

reviewing of pathology images.6. International standards (DICOM, HL7, SNOMED, CEN) and IHE

initiative. 7. An European-scope telepathology network 8. Collection of interesting and typical samples, and clinico-

pathological sessions

COST is supported by the EU RTD Framework Programme

ESF provides the COST Office through an EC contract8

Working groups

4 Working Groups Coordinators

WG1. Pathology Business Modellinge.g. Consensus study of existing workflows in pathology departments

Thomas Schrader (Germany) and Luis Gonçalves (Portugal)

WG2 – Informatics Standards in Pathologye.g. Participation in covered standards bodies and initiatives.

Christel Le Bozec (France) and Bernd Blobel (Germany)

WG3 – Images: Analysis, Processing, Retrieval and Managemente.g. study on the image analysis models (methods, systems, tools, fields of pathology).

Janina Slodkowska (Poland) and EPFL (Switzerland)

WG4 – Technology and Automation in Pathologye.g. analysis of microscope brands.

Marcial García Rojo (Spain) and Bernd Blobel (Germany)

COST is supported by the EU RTD Framework Programme

ESF provides the COST Office through an EC contract9

• 2008: IHE workflow proposals can help increasing productivity and automation procedures

• Analysis of Scanning solutions has become useful• Pathology DICOM object model has been published• JPEG is aware of compression and storage in Pathology• 2009: Process modelling and hospital information systems• IHE: Anatomic Pathology Reporting to Public Health

Repositories• Image analysis of immunohistochemical quantification has

been evaluated• Nanotechnology and multispectral imaging can play a role

Results vs. Objectives

COST is supported by the EU RTD Framework Programme

ESF provides the COST Office through an EC contract10

Significant highlights (1/2)

9th European Congress on Telepathology and 3rd International Congress on Virtual Microscopy

• 200 experts (35 countries) and all microscope brands• 5 COST related joint research papers were presented. A total

of 16 keynote lectures, 76 papers, 15 posters, 2 satellite symposia, and 2 short training courses (IHE and virtual slides)

• Proceedings published in BioMed Central (PubMed)• A STSM was arranged during this congress• EURO-TELEPATH is already know by international

standardization bodies (DICOM, IHE pathology groups). A joint meeting DICOM-IHE- EURO-TELEPATH has been arranged.

May, 2008May, 2008

COST is supported by the EU RTD Framework Programme

ESF provides the COST Office through an EC contract11

Significant highlights (2/2)

• Workshop on “Quantitative immunohistochemistry in digital pathology”

• IT engineers, bioinformaticians, biologists, oncologists, pathologists

• Consensus as obtained on standardization of immuno-histochemistry to improve quality and the current status of quantitative image analysis in immunohistochemistry.

• The collaborative study on breast carcinoma HER2/neu and hormonal receptors is a main output of this meeting.

• The draft of an EC RTD Framework project proposal was presented

COST is supported by the EU RTD Framework Programme

ESF provides the COST Office through an EC contract12

• STSM. Foster young scientists participation, • Training school on image analysis using open source

software.• Next critical phases should include:

– Complete business modeling of pathology processes using most suitable notation

– Terminology: SNOMED CT for Anatomic Pathology – Interfacing whole slide imaging platforms and image

automatic analysis – Postprocessing integration of radiology technical

framework (DICOM)

Challenges

COST is supported by the EU RTD Framework Programme

ESF provides the COST Office through an EC contract13