01. Pathology, or anatomical pathology

The digitalization of anatomical pathology will increase patient safety as well as the quality of care, improving the diagnosis of pathological samples and the efficiency of processes in the anatomical pathology (PA) services of health centres.

Pathology, or anatomical pathology, is a branch of medicine that scientifically studies the structure and functioning of the body during disease. The main role of AP is to identify abnormalities that can help diagnose disease, and thus administer the most appropriate treatment. Anatomical pathology includes the study of structural changes visible to the naked eye, called macroscopic changes; and changes detected through optical microscopy that are based on basic staining such as haematoxylin and eosin (HE) or other special histochemical or immunohistochemical techniques that identify subcellular elements to arrive at a more accurate diagnosis.

The scope of the SIMDCAT-APAT project includes everything from the definition of needs to develop the management platform and digitalized anatomical pathology imaging services in the SIMDCAT environment to the deployment of the platform in the SISCAT centres.

The following techniques are scheduled for digitalization: Haematoxylin and eosin, Histochemistry (PAS, trichomic, reticulin, Grocott, etc.), Immunofluorescence, Immunohistochemistry, FISH, cytology (Diff-quick, Papanicolaou), Electron microscopy, Haematological cytology.