Reimagining the Pathology Workflow: Digital Adoption and the Benefits for Modern Labs
Digital pathology continues to gain momentum, driving greater efficiency and value while enabling faster access to specialized expertise.
Digital pathology is increasingly recognized as the future of diagnostic and research workflows, providing greater clarity and deeper insights than traditional microscope-based approaches.
Looking ahead, the integration of AI into digital pathology workflows will be transformative, supporting pathologists in interpreting these complex datasets with greater speed, accuracy, and reproducibility, and further reinforcing digital pathology as a cornerstone of precision diagnostics.
While digital pathology offers clear benefits for laboratories, adoption in the US alone is estimated at below 15%. The journey to digital pathology may be complex, but it doesn’t have to be complicated.
Technology Networks spoke with Matthieu Guibourge, vice president of global sales, pathology imaging at Leica Biosystems, about how strong vendor–laboratory partnerships help organizations successfully adopt digital pathology and accelerate confidence in decisions, ultimately delivering greater value to both laboratories and the patients they serve, some of which need critical answers faster.
What are the most critical factors you assess to help laboratories that are considering an upgrade to digital pathology?
Matthieu Guibourgé (MG):
With deep experience across laboratories of different sizes, missions, and regions, Leica Biosystems recognizes that no two labs operate the same way. Throughput, staffing models, diagnostic complexity, IT infrastructure, and the need to connect translational and clinical activities vary. There is no one‑size‑fits‑all path to digital adoption, so our first step is mapping each lab’s unique workflow and identifying specific bottlenecks, decision points, and opportunities for measurable efficiency gains.
From this foundation, we work collaboratively with customers to design a tailored digital pathology solution and change‑management plan. Drawing on implementation experience and technology expertise, the plan we create is intended to enhance operational efficiency, reduce staffing strain, and establish sustainable, repeatable workflows.
Our goal is to help pathology teams spend more time on expert diagnostic or research work and less time navigating process challenges, while enabling executive leadership to make data‑informed decisions around standardization, scalability, sustainability, and ROI. We focus on solutions that support consistency, greater confidence in results, interoperability, and ease of use.
The partnership begins long before any product installation and continues through planning, validation, deployment, training, scaling, and ongoing optimization. We stay engaged until the transformation delivers the intended value and continue to support performance over time.
AM:
MG:
Adoption patterns vary because each institution’s priorities, staffing levels, throughput, and strategic objectives differ. Most health systems begin by targeting a high‑value use case—for example, load balancing across sites, remote subspecialty review, improved turnaround times, or expanded capacity. From there, Leica Biosystems helps build a phased plan with the change‑management framework needed for a successful transition.
Because digital pathology touches many functions, early cross‑functional alignment on a unified roadmap is essential. IT teams ensure infrastructure readiness; regulatory and quality teams address validation, compliance, and risk; operations leaders coordinate workflow redesign; and in multi‑location systems, site‑to‑site agreement is needed on timelines and deployment consistency.
We also see many laboratories planning for future growth, such as higher volumes, broader subspecialty access, expansion of remote review, or the introduction of AI‑enabled tools where clinically appropriate and compliant. Our role is to architect a solution that creates long‑term, scalable value rather than a short‑term fix. Because we offer solutions across the end‑to‑end pathology workflow, we are positioned as partners through each phase of this transition.
The appropriate pace depends on the health system’s characteristics—size, workflow maturity, throughput demands, IT environment, and the presence of “digital‑ready” processes. It is also dependent on how wide the mix of subspecialties is. For example, a dermatology lab would typically have less process alignment to address than a large reference lab.
Leica Biosystems tailors timelines and implementation plans to match existing infrastructure, resource availability, operational risk tolerance, and the user learning curve. Some organizations benefit from a comprehensive rollout; others achieve better outcomes with a phased model that starts with a single specialty or site and scales progressively. In all cases, the goal is the same: a sustainable, confident, and successful long‑term transformation, supported by clear validation criteria, training, and governance.
AM:
MG:
During transition, a hybrid model—microscopes alongside digital scanners—is common and can be stable when intentionally designed. Slides are still produced on glass; scanning adds a digital pathway that enables faster collaboration, remote or subspecialty consultation, workload balancing across sites, streamlined tumor board preparation, teaching, and a foundation for image analysis and AI (as appropriate and validated).
In practice, many health systems start hybrid (by specialty, site, or case type), then gradually expand the proportion of cases read digitally as validation scope grows, users gain confidence, and operational benefits compound. Increasingly, organizations progress to predominantly digital, and many ultimately operate fully digital for routine primary diagnosis where validated. We help establish clear policies, QA checkpoints, and governance so that digital becomes the default in a controlled, scalable way.
Change is constant in healthcare, and adoption is more durable when led by credible clinical and operational voices working within a structured program. Digital pathology introduces a new way of working: high‑resolution digital images supplement or replace traditional glass slide review, enabling secure sharing across sites and, where permitted, integration with AI‑based decision‑support tools. These capabilities can improve collaboration and consistency and support quality.
Champions help; governance sustains. Champions can accelerate enthusiasm, alignment, and momentum. However, program governance, training, and clear policies are what embed the change across the entire user base—not just among early adopters.
Once laboratories are fully up and running, optimization sets in, with some research instruments able to process 103 slides per hour and scan as fast as 22 slides per second to support research workflows.
Feedback from laboratory leaders often includes that they wish they had transitioned sooner. While full implementation requires planning, many benefits begin early in the rollout.
AM:
MG:
Traditional pathology workflows require slides, microscopes, and pathologists to be co‑located. Digital pathology removes that constraint, supporting timely collaboration and helping ensure the right case reaches the right sub-specialist at the right time.
This is particularly important as sub-specialization deepens and as rare disease presentations require expert review. Digital workflows can also support rural or underserved regions where on‑site resources are limited, reducing courier dependence and potentially improving time to results.
Once health systems adopt digital pathology, we typically see them expand their digital capabilities. Gains in efficiency, throughput, consistency, and collaboration tend to reinforce continued and broader digital use.
AM:
MG:
The shift from microscope‑based review to on‑screen digital pathology represents a fundamental change in how pathologists evaluate tissue. As users adapt to subtle differences in visual presentation, consistency becomes essential. Uniform staining removes unnecessary variability, allowing pathologists to trust that what they’re seeing reflects true biological differences rather than technical noise.
Digital pathology also changes perception. Viewing multiple whole-slide images side by side makes staining variability more visible than traditional single‑slide microscopic review, where the eye often compensates automatically. As a result, pre‑analytical discipline and thoroughness matter more than ever.
Beyond standard microtomy best practices, section thickness and tissue placement play a key role in digital success. Thin, uniform sections optimize image capture in a single focal plane and improve both visual interpretation and downstream AI analysis, particularly for IHC.
Equally important is slide preparation. Centrally placed tissue supports reliable scanning, while coverslip choice plays a big role in image quality. The results of a study we commissioned discovered that glass coverslips produce a cleaner image with minimal artifacts and no longitudinal scratches, supporting reproducible digital workflows and image quality.
In contrast, film coverslips exhibited nearly five times more defects and increased surface irregularities, adversely affecting image quality and confidence in results. As pathology becomes increasingly digital and data‑driven, attention to these foundational details is critical to realizing its full clinical and analytical potential.
In closing, when approached thoughtfully with clear timelines and inclusive planning that ensures every stakeholder has a voice, these steps can empower even the most complex, multi-layered health systems to fully realize the transformative potential of digital pathology.
By unlocking new levels of efficiency, accuracy, and collaboration across teams, organizations can generate sustained, long-term value not only for the system itself, but for the patients and researchers who rely on timely, reliable insights.
Ultimately, this progress accelerates clinical decisions, advances research discoveries, and brings us closer to better outcomes for everyone awaiting critical answers.
This content includes text that has been created with the assistance of generative AI and has undergone editorial review before publishing. Technology Networks' AI policy can be found here.
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