Category Archives: 2018

Application and Implementation of AI Driven Screening Processes in Pathology

Dr. Donal O’Shea, Deciphex

Developing deep learning models that account for all variants of abnormality in a given tissue slide can be a challenge requiring extensive and time consuming annotation of thousands of pathology slides by experienced pathologists. The process also needs to effectively account for tissue processing variance and digital pathology scanner selection, which is almost infinite due to the extensive range of interchangeable unit operations available for the pathology lab.

In scenarios where a high percentage of normal content presents, we propose a generalised model for abnormality detection to help identify abnormal content of interest and support the elimination of normal cases from the workflow.  The generalised model as proposed is developed solely from normal cases, requires no annotation of slides as a result and can be rapidly tailored to account for inter-laboratory processing variance.

During his presentation,“Finding Normals: Application and Implementation AI Driven Screen Processes in Pathology”Dr. O’Shea will discuss how such approaches can be leveraged, useful application segments for the technology and how he foresees this capability being embodied in software workflows.

View more on Dr. Donal O’Shea

About Pathology Horizons

Pathology Horizons is taking place from 13-15 September 2018 at the Lough Erne Resort in N.Ireland. It is a unique CPD conference, organised by Cirdan that looks at what lies ahead in pathology. Delegates will learn about new technologies, lines of research and procedural developments that are driving the future of pathology. View Agenda

Please note that given the nature of this boutique style conference that there are only a limited number of places available. If planning on attending booking soon is advisable. Register here

Pathology Horizons – It’s almost time!

With just over two months to go until the next Pathology Horizons conference excitement is starting to build. Here’s some insight into why there is such a buzz around this event.

What’s it all about?

Pathology Horizons is an annual CPD conference organised by Cirdan, which focuses on what lies ahead in pathology. Delegates attending this unique event, now in its fourth year will learn about new technologies, lines of research and procedural developments that are driving the future of pathology.

Unlike other larger pathology events, Pathology Horizons is a boutique conference with only one conference stream, allowing delegates and speakers to interact easily with each other, providing an excellent networking and learning environment.

International Experts and Groundbreaking Topics

A first class panel of speakers from across the globe, including some of the best minds in the areas of pathology, laboratory medicine and personal and organisational development have been lined up to deliver presentations. Some talks to look forward to include:

  • Virtual and Augmented Reality in Digital Pathology
  • Application of Liquid Biopsy to the Detection and Treatment of Ovarian Cancer
  • Genome Sequencing as a Diagnostic Aid
  • Emerging Neuropathology Diagnostics: Genetic Scaffolds, Phenotypes and Advanced Imaging
  • Advancing Diagnostic Pathology: Impact of Digital Pathology and Artificial Intelligence Tools
  • Extreme Makeover: Creating Pathology Reports that Make a Difference

View full agenda

Who’s attending?

The conference is open to anyone interested in the area of pathology and laboratory medicine, for example Pathologists, Biomedical Scientists and other Laboratory Professionals. Confirmed delegates this year are coming from as far afield as New Zealand and work in a mix of clinical, academic and industry settings.

What’s in it for me?

As well as the obvious learning and networking opportunities delegates can earn CPD credits for attending. The conference has been CPD certified and is approved by the Royal College of Pathologists for nine CPD credits. The added bonus is that you can get all of this professional development in a relaxed and fun environment within a five star luxury resort.

Where is Pathology Horizons being held?

The conference is being held in the Lough Erne Resort, one of Northern Ireland’s finest hotels, just outside Enniskillen in Co. Fermanagh.

What can I expect?

Here’s a quick overview of last year’s conference in Cairns, Australia. Please note having a world-class golf course onsite is not a mandatory requirement when selecting a Pathology Horizons venue 🙂

Hear from some past delegates and speakers

How can I join the conference?

For details on how to register go to www.pathologyhorizons.com/register There is always a lot of interest in this unique event and demand has been greater than ever before this year. If you are interested in attending please book soon as there are a limited amount of places remaining.

Laboratory Medicine: The Times They Are A Changin’ – Hear more from Dr. Regan at Pathology Horizons

We are looking forward to welcoming  Dr. Irene Regan, Vice President of the Academy of Clinical Scientists and Laboratory Medicine (ACSLM) in Ireland to Pathology Horizons this September.

Dr. Regan will be giving a presentation, entitled “Laboratory Medicine:  The Times They Are a Changin”, which will focus on the key challenges and opportunities of laboratory medicine and address pertinent issues of the day. The 3 I’s concept will be examined; investing in individuals, investing in ideas and investing in infrastructure in order to deliver a modern and up to date laboratory medicine ecosystem of excellence.

A vision for the future will be presented in relation to re-structuring of laboratory based disciplines taking into account the key challenges that face us today and in the future including; laboratory infrastructure, technology trends, global harmonisation of IVDs, health informatics, e-health, connected health, precision medicine, lab in the home and international competition in healthcare. This vision will be presented keeping in mind the need to ensure high quality and reliability of services.

About Pathology Horizons

Pathology Horizons is taking place from 13-15 September 2018 at the Lough Erne Resort in N.Ireland. It is a unique CPD conference, organised by Cirdan that looks at what lies ahead in pathology. Delegates will learn about new technologies, lines of research and procedural developments that are driving the future of pathology. View Agenda

Please note that this conference is open to anyone interested in the area of pathology, however spaces are limited so booking as early as possible  is advisable. Register here

Genome Sequencing as a Diagnostic Aid

There is wide acceptance of the concept of genotype-phenotype correlation in cancers. This concept has been extensively explored in breast carcinogenesis. Early work identified a strong phenotypic signature of breast cancer, which arose in patients with germline BRCA1 mutation. Subsequent data identified four broad intrinsic subtypes of breast cancer, with one being a group of “basal-like” breast cancers, referring to their over-expression of basal cytokeratin markers. Over time, and with transition of intrinsic subtyping to the clinic, the concept of triple-negative breast cancers (i.e., not expressing ER, PR or HER2 by IHC or ISH) evolved as a phenotypic surrogate for “”basal-like” breast cancers. This surrogate was acceptable, given that therapeutic targets available in breast cancer were limited to those directed at the ER/PR pathway and HER2, neither of which were expressed in basal-like breast cancers.

The genomes of several cohorts of triple negative breast cancer have since been analysed. It is clear that they are a heterogeneous group of cancers at the molecular level, with general agreement that some remain true to the basal-like genotype, whilst others have a predominant “immune-activated” or a “mesenchymal” genomic footprint. Still others are nominated “luminal androgen receptor” and are non-basal-like in their molecular profile.

Concomitantly, there has been evolving interest in targeted therapies for TNBC, including targets for basal-like and luminal androgen receptor breast cancers. However, there has been little application of this refined molecular stratification of TNBC in the clinic, possibly due to inaccessibility of genomic analysis for the majority of breast cancers and the fact that the morphological correlates of these TNBC remain under-explored. New technologies, including digital imaging of histology phenotypes, can potentially be recruited to help determine phenotypic subgroups of TNBC relevant to their genotype and therefore their potential targeted therapies. It is possible that these digitally-discovered phenotypes can be applied to stratify TNBC in the routine clinical setting.

Prof. Jane Armes, Clinical Director at NSW Health Pathology in Australia will be discussing further at Pathology Horizons 2018.

About Pathology Horizons

Pathology Horizons is an annual CPD conference that focuses on what lies ahead in pathology. This unique event allows delegates to learn about new technologies, procedural developments and lines of research that are driving the future of Pathology. Unlike other larger pathology conferences, it is a boutique event with only one conference stream. This enables delegates to interact and network with each other as well as with the expert international panel of expert speakers.

Date: 13-15 September 2018

Venue: Lough Erne Resort, N.Ireland

View full agenda
Early Bird ends 31/5/18 – View details on how to register

Dr. Bankhead to speak on how novel open source software platform is revolutionizing digital pathology image analysis

We are delighted to welcome Research Scientist,  Dr. Peter Bankhead to our expert panel of speakers for Pathology Horizons 2018.

Innovation increasingly relies on open tools, standards and software, empowering researchers to test new ideas and make new discoveries.  Reproducibility and standardization in science also crucially depend upon analysis methods being made freely available.

Until recently, digital pathology suffered from the lack of a software platform that would make these things possible.  Faced with a choice between attempting to analyze whole slide images using commercial systems (often prohibitively expensive) or by applying generic open source software (often prohibitively complex), much biomarker analysis in practice continued to be based on visual estimation by pathologists, which is laborious and known to have limited reproducibility.

QuPath was developed to address these issues, and represents the first widely-used, powerful, flexible, extensible and user-friendly open source platform for whole slide image analysis.  Since its release at the end of 2016, QuPath has been downloaded more than 10 000 times and is used worldwide by research groups in both academia and industry.

A central goal of QuPath is to provide the tools for pathologists and image analysts to better work together, advancing the field more rapidly.

During  his presentation at Pathology Horizons, Dr. Bankhead will outline some of the reasons behind QuPath’s success so far, and describe features currently in development that are set to greatly expand its scope and reach for digital pathology and bioimage analysis applications in the near future.

Why attend Pathology Horizons?

The conference is set to be another interesting and extremely informative event with a range of top international speakers demonstrating the power of new technologies, updates on procedural developments and valuable new lines of research – all in a relaxed and open atmosphere! Unlike other larger pathology events, Pathology Horizons is a boutique conference with one conference stream, which allows you to interact and network fully with the delegates and speakers. The conference is also CPD certified and has been awarded with 9 CPD credits by The Royal College of Pathologists.

Some other topics from speakers include: 

  • Artificial intelligence and what it means for healthcare and patholgy
  • Liquid biopsy and what it can do for detecting/treating ovarian cancer
  • Virtual and augmented reality in digital pathology
  • Genome sequencing as a diagnostic aid

View  full Agenda.

Don’t miss out, secure your place today!

Pathology Horizons 2018                                                                                    Lough Erne Resort, N. Ireland                                                                                        13-15th September

Radiology and Pathology Integration – Opportunities Outweigh the Challenges

In recent years, advances in the field of diagnostic medicine have provided enormous benefits to patients with cancer.  However, the increase in complexity of new testing modalities in pathology and radiology has also led to new challenges in gathering all essential information and forming a coherent diagnostic message for a given case.

Opportunities for optimal patient care may be lost, and diagnostic errors might not be prevented, without a formal integration of the various testing modalities in pathology and radiology.  During his presentation at Pathology Horizons 2018, Dr. Wallace will discuss the challenges of pathology and radiology correlation in the current diagnostic paradigm and the numerous opportunities for improved workflows and patient outcomes with an effective diagnostic integration process.

Dr. W. Dean Wallace  is a Professor of Pathology at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine in Los Angeles, California. He is the chief of pulmonary and renal pathology services and is recognised as an expert in the fields of transplant pathology and lung cancer diagnostics. Dr. Wallace is also the Director of the UCLA Telepathology and Digital Pathology Centre and co-led the team that created the innovative, first of its kind, Integrated Diagnostic Report (IDR) that combines multiple radiology and pathology studies into one dynamic reporting platform. Dr. Wallace has authored several dozen peer-reviewed papers and book chapters and was lead editor of a textbook in the field of transplant pathology.

Why attend Pathology Horizons?

The conference is set to be another interesting and  informative event with a range of top international speakers demonstrating the power of new technologies, updates on procedural developments and valuable new lines of research – all in a relaxed and open atmosphere! Unlike other larger pathology events, Pathology Horizons is a boutique conference with one conference stream, which allows you to interact and network fully with the delegates and speakers. The conference is also CPD certified and has been awarded with 9 CPD credits by The Royal College of Pathologists.

Some other topics from speakers include: 

  • Artificial intelligence and what it means for healthcare and patholgy
  • Liquid biopsy and what it can do for detecting/treating ovarian cancer
  • Virtual and augmented reality in digital pathology
  • Genome sequencing as a diagnostic aid

Please note places for the conference are limited. If you are planning on attending, booking soon is advisable.  Register here

Pathology Horizons 2018                                                                                    Lough Erne Resort, N. Ireland                                                                                        13-15th September

Development of genomic assays for multi-arm clinical trials in cancer

There are an increasing number of molecular assays being developed to guide patient treatments. There is , however, often a limited amount of material available for analysis. Almac Diagnostics have therefore developed DNA and mRNA next generation sequencing based panels that have been analytically validated to deliver multiple Biomarkers from small amounts of material. An associated comprehensive patient report has been developed to guide the best treatment in oncology trials and eventually in standard clinical practice.

During his presentation at Pathology Horizons 2018 Prof. Kennedy will discuss the challenges to implementing these kind of Biomarker panels in clinical care and how these are being overcome.

Prof. Richard Kennedy is the Medical Director and Global VP of Biomarker Development at Almac Diagnostics and the McClay Professor in Medical Oncology at the Centre for Cancer Research and Cell Biology, Queen’s University of Belfast.

Why attend Pathology Horizons?

The conference is set to be another interesting and extremely informative event with a range of top international speakers demonstrating the power of new technologies, updates on procedural developments and valuable new lines of research – all in a relaxed and open atmosphere! Unlike other larger pathology events, Pathology Horizons is a boutique conference with one conference stream, which allows you to interact and network fully with the delegates and speakers. The conference is also CPD certified and has been awarded with 9 CPD credits by The Royal College of Pathologists.

Other topics from speakers include: 

  • Artificial intelligence and what it means for healthcare
  • Liquid biopsy and what it can do for detecting/treating ovarian cancer
  • Virtual and augmented reality in digital pathology
  • Radiology and pathology integration
  • Genome sequencing as a diagnostic aid

Don’t miss out, secure your place today!

Pathology Horizons 2018                                                                                    Lough Erne Resort, N. Ireland                                                                                        13-15th September

Pathology Horizons is coming to N.Ireland

September 2018 will see Cirdan host the next Pathology Horizons conference in Northern Ireland for the first time ever.  Previous event locations have included Cairns and Fraser Island, Australia and Galway, Ireland. Pathology Horizons 2018 will be the fourth conference run by Cirdan and is to be held in the superb, five star Lough Erne Resort in County Fermanagh from 13 – 15 September.

Overview

Pathology Horizons is an annual CPD conference focused on the future of pathology and looking at what lies ahead in this area. The conference will attract expert speakers and delegates from all over the world.

Why attend?

This unique event will give delegates the chance to learn about new technologies, procedural developments and lines of research that are driving the future of pathology. They will hear about the pros and cons of these developments, how people in supporting disciplines should be preparing for and perhaps directing these changes and their potential impact on the daily work of a Pathologist.

Unlike many other events, Pathology Horizons is a boutique conference that provides an opportunity for delegates to contribute their ideas and interact with innovators from around the world, while expanding their knowledge and making some new contacts.

Who should attend?

The Pathology Horizons 2018 conference is open to anyone who is interested in the area of pathology e.g. Pathologists, Laboratory Managers and Biomedical Scientist.

Pathology Horizons 2017 Overview

The overview video of Pathology Horizons 2017 in Cairns will provide some insight into the conference content and give you a good feel for the event.

Get notified when Pathology Horizons 2018 conference registration opens.