53: Why digital pathology will be mainstream soon w/ Aleksandra Zuraw, Digital Pathology Place

Digital Pathology Podcast

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I started working in the digital pathology space, because it sounded cool.
When I started my digital pathology journey in 2016 as the first full time pathologist supporting the image analysis team, I thought it was the coolest job to get straight out of my veterinary pathology residency!
I was regarded as an expert (such a different feeling from what you experience during your training, when you are constantly being reminded how little you know and how much there still is to learn), which increased my confidence and motivated me to learn more. After all I needed to explain pathology to computer scientists.
Working together with the image analysis team and the software development team was exciting and I got to play and test software to view and annotate images.
Yes...
⛌ The images were shipped on hard drives
⛌ It took forever to open an image (over 30 sec...sometimes several minutes)
⛌ The annotation tool would regularly crash
FAST FORWARD 6 years
✔️No more hard drive shipping
✔️The speed of working with digital slides matches my speed at the microscope
✔️I didn't have to reboot my computer a single time today
✔️I work entirely remotely and can attend all recitals and events my kids take part in
VERY SELFISHLY I WOULDN'T WANT TO HAVE IT ANY OTHER WAY
I know I'm part of a minority of privileged pathologists. But it very much reminds me of the time when smartphones came to the market, when I could not afford one yet and they did not have so many functionalities
I was dreaming of having one that could always connect to the Internet, so that I could use Google Maps whenever I wanted (both on vacation and during my commute as a Polish PhD student studying in Germany - knowing the fastest way home on the weekend and avoiding traffic would be priceless!)
NOW EVERYONE HAS A SMARTPHONE
And would you want to have a different phone? The old one?
I know some would, but THEY ARE A MINORITY NOW.
How far are you in your digital pathology journey?
How do you feel about it? Is it already a reality or still a science fiction for you?
Let me know in the comments on LinkedIn
THIS EPISODE'S RESOURCES:
Digital Pathology Starter Kit + Digital Pathology Newsletter
"I started because it was cool..." - LinkedIn post

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