APIII - Advancing Practice, Instruction & Innovation Through Informatics

 

A Visual Pathology Report to Facilitate Communication of Patient-specific Pathology Information

Katherin A. Peperzak, B.S., (peperzak.katherin@medstudent.pitt.edu) Medical Student, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA; David E. Eibling, M.D., Department of Otolaryngology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA

Content: Suboptimal communication between pathologists and clinicians via text-based pathology reports may result in potential or real harm to patients.  Attempts by surgeons to generate mental visual images from the text information within pathologic reports can lead to misinterpretation of the in situ localization of cancers of the region and their orientation within the microenvironment.

Compelling evidence exists that presentation of complex spatial information through text fails to convey subtle relationships that may be readily apparent when presented visually.   Our goal is to develop a novel visualization-based pathology report with the primary intent of enhancing pathologist-surgeon (or pathologist-oncologist, or pathologist-radiotherapist) communication.

Technology: Preliminary three-dimensional models of surgical pathology specimens have been generated from CT scans using 3D Slicer developed at Brigham & Women’s Hospital (Boston, MA).

An interactive user interface for the pathology report will be constructed by the Visual Information Systems Center at the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Information Sciences.

Design: An interface for the visualization-based pathology report has been designed for our prototype model of resected larynges.  The report will include a three-dimensional model of the resected specimen generated by fusing radiographic and digital photographic images.  Histopathologic samples will be digitally photographed and indexed to the model of the specimen. This interface will enable the user to “explore” the model, accurately identifying sites of histologic sampling while allowing the user to zoom-in on pathologic sites and margins of interest, as well as, view annotations provided by the pathologist.

We are conducting clinician interviews and investigating several methods of three-dimensional model generation to ensure maximum usability and feasibility of wide-spread use of this experimental report format.  This period of research will be followed by implementation of a prototype of the interface for evaluation by clinicians. 

Results: N/A

Conclusions: Informal clinician interviews indicate there is great desire and need for a visualization-based pathology report.  We hope this interface will improve clinician understanding of pathology, similar to how the introduction of radiological images into routine clinical care using image visualization systems, such as Stentor®, has improved clinician comprehension of the complex three-dimensional anatomy of disease. 

Keywords: Pathology report, visualization

Category: Pathology Informatics