Digital Pathology and Telemedicine: More Cooperation for Best Technologies Implementation

In recent days, telemedicine and digital pathomorphology discussed very actively at different levels: from health care institutions to the government. It is expected that the law regulating the telemedicine practice will be adopted in the coming year. Many medical and research institutions already implement and use solutions in this area in their practice. This topic was discussed at the Oncology Forum “White Nights-2016” in Saint Petersburg where OPTEC took an active part and made a number of important partnership agreements.

OPTEC Group and UNIM Agreed to Cooperate in the Area of Clinical Pathology and Telemedicine

OPTEC and UNIM have concluded an agreement on strategical cooperation for the development and advancement of digital pathomorphology technology in all regions where OPTEC Group operates. OPTEC brings to the partnership its expertise in tissue specimen preparation and digital microscopy while UNIM acts as an expert in the development and implementation of cloud-based remote diagnostics, online consulting, and training platforms. The agreement was signed by Maksym Igelnyk, OPTEC Group Board Chairman, and Alexey Remez, UNIM General Director.
The cooperation between OPTEC and UNIM seeks to deploy digital telemedicine solutions on a wider scale, to introduce them in everyday practice of oncological disease diagnosis and telemedicine healthcare services, and to use these solutions to train pathologists. Over the past few years, OPTEC has supplied state-of-the-art laboratory equipment, including digital specimen microscopy equipment, to more than thirty healthcare facilities such as regional cancer centers, universities, and research centers throughout Russia. These solutions allow for quick and efficient preprocessing of biopsy materials for further microscopic studies; a special slide scanner is used to save the results in electronic format and share them for consultations, online teleconsultations with third-party experts, training or electronic archiving.
UNIM is successful Russian startup, the developer of the Digital Pathology online service, a management platform for digitized tissue specimens that can be used for teleconsultations, consultations, distance learning, and specimen database and clinical data archiving. Hundreds of pathologists from Russia, Germany, the United States, and Britain already have access to the Digital Pathology online service.
Digital specimen images are fully compatible with the Digital Pathology platform developed by UNIM. This online cloud service works on any device and provides both in-company and remote access for pathologists to digitized tissue specimens and clinical data. Hundreds of pathologists from Russia, Germany, the United States, and Britain already have access to the Digital Pathology online service and this number continues to grow.
“We expect that Digital Pathology offered by UNIM will help our customers to get more from shared digitized specimens using their equipment in a faster and easier way, which means that they will be able to make a more accurate diagnosis in less time, thus saving time and resources,” said Maksym Igelnyk, OPTEC Group Board Chairman. “A wider application of digital technology in oncology is becoming the global standard: this is the near future of pathomorphology.”
According to the agreement, OPTEC will act as a distributor of UNIM Digital Pathology solutions. In addition, OPTEC and UNIM have agreed to develop an outreach program, which will include roundtable discussions, master classes, and workshops by in-house and third-party experts to introduce doctors and scientists to advanced technology in clinical pathology. These events will take place in leading medical, scientific, and educational centers in Russia with the participation of OPTEC and UNIM experts and foreign professionals.
“Our success is based on partnerships with leading cancer centers both in and outside Russia, practicing pathologists, and now with suppliers of pathomorphology equipment and solutions,” said Alexey Remez, UNIM General Director. “I am confident that OPTEC’s long track record in this area of expertise and our digital telemedicine projects will open up new horizons for pathologists and patients in many regions in Russia and abroad.”

OPTEC News#15. July 2016