API Focus Session: Synergies Between Radiology and Pathology

Are We Ready to Merge Pathology, Lab Medicine, and Radiology?

Bruce Friedman, MD

For about the past two years, there has been increasing interest in convergence or even potential merger of the three major diagnostic medical specialties: pathology, lab medicine, and radiology. Some have expressed the opinion that the merged specialty could be rename Diagnostic Medicine. In this lecture, all of the forces at work, both for and against this merger, will be presented. It is fully understood that any changes, if they occur, will be incremental and based on bottom-up and evolving relationships between the three speciality groups and that the major criterion for change will be greater efficiency and quality of the integrated diagnostic reports.

By the end of this presentation, attendees should be able to:

 

Multimode Multiscale Imaging of Prostate Carcinoma

Michael D. Feldman, MD, PhD

This presentation will focus on a research "use case" that integrates radiology and pathology digital imaging of prostate glands. Issues around data acquisition, multimode, multiscale registration, data fusion between modalities and machine learning will be discussed with respect to these merged image data sets. The "Use" case will demonstrate how these imaging modalities can be used inform each other. The studies will point to opportunities for future clinical and research directions of how data fusion can bring out new clinical and research opportunities in radiology and pathology as well as application of these fused data sets for clinical care.

By the end of this presentation, attendees should be able to:

 

Multimodality Imaging Breast Lesion Phenotype


Mitchell D. Schnall, MD, PhD

There is widespread appreciation that there are multiple subtypes of breast cancer.  Although these are often described on the basis of molecular biology, there is growing understanding that imaging offers an opportunity to describe the phenotype of a breast cancer to compliment the molecular data.  The basic concepts of an imaging phenotype information object to classify breast cancer will be described along side of preliminary data developed from multimodality breast images.

By the end of this presentation, attendees should be able to:

 

Progress Toward a Unified Infrastructure for Pathology and Radiology - DICOM WG26

Bruce A. Beckwith, MD

As digital pathology images are increasingly used withinclinical information systems, there is a growing need to standardize methods for storage, retrieval and viewing of gross and microscopicimages(includingwhole slide microscopic images), as well as annotation of image files with clinical metadata. In recognition of this, a pathology specific working group (WG-26)was formed within DICOM in 2005 which works closely with the pathology working groups ofIHE and HL7. In early 2007, asupplement to the DICOM standard was released for balloting which provides a mechanism toannotate images with relevantpathology specimen data, a necessary first step in promoting interoperability between image archiveand laboratoryinformation systems.This session will discuss the status and roadmap of theseongoinginternational efforts.

 

API Junior Investigator Presentation: Structured Data as the Foundation for Evidence Informed Medicine: Where Do We Begin?

Joy J. Mammen MBBS, MD

Modern medicine as we know it has its foundation in evidentiary practice. This has contributed to improving the quality of medical care as well as error reduction. Evidence can only result from reliable data. Ideally, data accrual must be automated and systematic ensuring standardization and absence of bias. Data acquisition has been inherently easier in clinical pathology and chemistry – since we deal with numerical values and interpretative text dependent on reference ranges. Interpreting morphology or a representation thereof to arrive at a diagnosis and to communicate this effectively in a standardized manner has been more challenging in the domains of anatomic pathology and radiology. In this session the presenter will discuss how structured data reporting presents an opportunity to better address the challenge of data acquisition in anatomic pathology. The use of structured data reporting also gives us an opportunity to standardize data, ensure that all required elements of the report have been addressed as well as to control errors thereby improving quality.

At the end of the session, the participant should be able to:

 

CAP Today Focus Session:

Why Not New Dehli? Is the Local Pathologist Dispensable?

Michael Laposata, MD, PhD

This presentation will discuss a major challenge to the local pathologist: An articulate, English speaking, US trained pathologist in a CAP and European Union accredited lab, who provides the same services at 40% of the current cost in India.

The digitalization of images and the increase in non-stop very long distance global transit by air has made it possible for well trained radiologists and pathologists to provide services anywhere in the world. The advantages provided by linking expert pathologists and radiologists with clinicians across the US has now jeopardized the role of the US radiologists and pathologists. Claims of inferiority of non-US services cannot be supported any longer when more than a dozen anatomic and clinical pathology labs in India meet or exceed the same criteria required for labs in the US.

The presentation will include solutions to this development by describing new roles that make the local pathologists indispensable.

By the end of this presentation, attendees should be able to:

Future Vision of Pathology: Getting Off the Iceberg

Jared N. Schwartz, MD, PhD, FCAP

This presentation will explore the key trends and market forces that are driving the changes in the practice of pathology. This session will also discuss market forces and technology advancements that are accelerating changes in the delivery of health care, explore the implications for pathology practice and identify what pathologists can do to stay relevant in the dynamic health care environment.

By the end of this presentation, attendees will:

Key Messages:

Market forces and technology advancements are accelerating changes in the delivery of health care. Personalized medicine will change the dynamic of how diagnoses are delivered and treatment selected. It will also change the dynamic among different specialties that compose the patient treatment team. The traditional approach to defining a specialty by the tools it uses is no longer valid. Professionals within all specialties will employ and adapt tools that provide greater specificity, accuracy and efficiency.

Pathologists are armed with the basic ingredients to assume a more central role in patient care. With a unique understanding of disease processes, we are charged with diagnosing disease, pre-disposition to disease, and risk of disease recurrence that drives prognosis and therapy decisions. Today’s dynamic environment requires that we expand our current arsenal of skills and knowledge to maintain relevance in the emerging personalized medicine model. The recipe for the future requires learning new techniques, expanding our toolkit, broadening communication, and raising performance standards. Molecular medicine will play a key role in the diagnostic toolkit.

21st Century Tele-Everything: Taking the Helm of the Informatics Ship

Dr. Weinstein

Two decades ago, in 1988, the Future Technologies Committee of the College of American Pathologists, Chaired by Dr. John Henry, proposed that the CAP begin to offer courses, at their annual meetings, on the topic “Pathologists as Information Specialists”. The idea was that, as we moved in the direction of informatics-based health care practices, pathologists might be the specialists-of-choice to serve as Chief Information Officers for health care organizations. In this scenario, they would be charged with the responsibility to overseeing and managing the practice-wide health care computer-based networks of the future. That proposal to put on such a course was accepted by the CAP. Such courses were offered for several years and were well received. One result was that, when the state legislature in Arizona became interested in supporting a pilot project telemedicine, in 1996, the University of Arizona’s pathology department was ready to accept the challenge of administering this program. Today, the state-wide Arizona Telemedicine Program serves as a model of a large telehealth enterprise that was initially rooted in an academic department of pathology at the University of Arizona. Fifty-five health care organizations participate in the program through an Applications Service Provider business model. This was administered through a pathology department business office for over a decade. The Arizona Telemedicine Program has provided telemedicine and telehealth services in 61 subspecialties of medicine, surgery, pediatrics, psychiatry, pathology, radiology, and others. Over 600,000 patients in Arizona have received telemedicine services. Thousands of patients have received laboratory services by telemedicine. The reimbursement landscape in Arizona has become favorable. The Arizona Telemedicine Program has supported many academic components in education and research. The Arizona experience shows that pathology departments have the capability of expanding their base of activity in the informatics arena well beyond pathology services when their informatics, telecommunications infrastructure, and business personnel are available to support a wider range of clinical activities and the activities can be accommodated by the department’s mission statement.

By the end of this presentation, attendees should be able to:

BREAKOUT DESCRIPTIONS

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

A1 Whole Slide Imaging and the Automated Histology Laboratory

John Gilbertson MD, Anil Parwani, MD, PhD and Yukako Yagi PhD

This presentation will discuss the current, technical status of automated, high speed, high resolution whole slide imaging (WSI) devices in and their use in pathology departments, with particular focus on the importance of traditional histology in the creation of high quality images, histology automation and departmental slide work-flow in the integration of images in departmental operations, and management of images with other departmental information assets such as blocks, slides, documents and reports.

By the end of this presentation, attendees should be able to:

A2 Crimson Application: A New Paradigm for Enabling High-throughput Sample Acquisition to Support Biomedical Research at a National Level

Lynn Bry, MD, PhD

The effort and costs associated with obtaining patients samples for high-throughput analyses remains at least an order of magnitude higher than any other step in the discovery process. In contrast, clinical laboratories and pathology departments discard thousands of samples each day, materials representing the entirety of the human condition, in health and disease. To address grow research needs, the BWH Pathology Department developed the Crimson application. Crimson communicates with one or more local laboratory or pathology information systems to rapidly scan recently accessioned materials for those that meet investigator-defined criteria. Once located, samples undergo an accessioning process and assignment to one or more studies with an active IRB protocol. The application also handles direct submission and processing of research samples for clinical trials or other studies, allowing clinical laboratories and other sites to centralize research processing within a common IT platform.  In addition, Crimson includes domain logic so it is enterprise-scalable and able to support multiple banking sites from a single instance of the application. It also manages patient consent status on samples through a robust honest-broker, a workflow engine for handling downstream processing and testing, inventory and shipping functions, and a billing module to allow sites to recoup costs associated with services provided. In its first year of use, the BWH Specimen Bank processed >15,000 samples through Crimson. Use of the application reduced the costs of sample collection by more than an order of magnitude while frequently raising throughput of materials collected for studies by 1-2 orders of magnitude. These combined effects have already demonstrated profound and positive impact upon the research enterprise at Partners Healthcare Inc.

By the end of this presentation, attendees should be able to:

Strategic Management of Anatomic Pathology Laboratory Information Systems for Enhancement of Translational Research Efforts

Ashok A. Patel, MD

By the end of this presentation, attendees should be able to:

B1 A ‘real-world dialogue’ on the Implementation of Imaging Technologies in the Practice of Surgical Pathology

Jochen KM Lennerz

Incorporation of new imaging technologies in surgical pathology is often equated with the replacement of the pathologist’s core diagnostic tool: the light microscope. A pathologic diagnosis depends much more on the pathologist’s competence than on the technology’ or the ‘microscope’ used. It is therefore essential to separate knowledge of histopathology from the skill of using a microscope; especially when evaluation new imaging technologies.

There is little doubt that pathologists will increasingly view sections using whole slide imaging (=virtual microscopy). While many of the technology associated features (file size, scanning time, resolution, etc.) differ from system to system, tailoring to individual needs is often complicated or requires consultation. Many of the common practical questions associated with the implementation into the routine diagnostic setting remain unanswered. In this presentation answers to the essential questions will be exemplified using multiple live-demos and lots of daily examples of frustration and fun, illustrated as a ‘real-world dialogue’ between an inspired IT-person and an enthusiastic Pathologist.

By the end of this presentation, you will know more about:

Primary Frozen Section Diagnosis by Telepathology: Robotic Microscopy VersusWhole-slide Imaging

Andrew J. Evans, MD

University Health Network (UHN) is a large 3-site academic health centerin downtown Toronto.The Department of Pathology is consolidated at the Toronto General Hospital (TGH) site. There are no on-site full-time pathologists at either the Princess Margret Hospital (PMH) for the Toronto Western Hospital (TWH)sites. TWHis located 1 mile to the west ofTGHand generates a low-volume of specimens that require intraoperative consultation by frozen section. Most of theseoriginate from neurosurgical procedures. Since 2004, frozen sections from the TWHsite have been examined for primary diagnosis by telepathology (2004-2006 byrobotic microscopy and 2006-2008 by whole-slide imaging). This is the first program of its kind in Canada. This presentation will describe the development and implementation of telepathology for primary frozen section diagnosis at UHN. It will also provideanoverview of the numbers and types of specimens examined, our diagnostic accuracy andturnaround times, as well as critical points that we have learned along the way to make this program the success that it has become.

By the end of this presentation,conference participants should have an understanding of:

B2 The Future of All Things LIS: AP, CP, and their Logical Merger with the Advent of High-throughput Molecular Data

Ulysses J. Balis, MD and Michael D. McNeely, MD

This presentation will summarize current and future directions in the evolution of Lab Information Systems including: Anatomic Pathology, Clinical Pathology, and their likely merger in the form of Molecular Lab Support and Reporting. Such future Information Systems, as witnessed by current leading-edge projects and the discussions of the Association for Pathology Informatics "Think Tank on the LIS,” hold significant promise for the alleviation of a number of longstanding limitations in workflow, productivity and quality.

The presentation will be divided into three sections:
Part I: CP
Part II: AP
Part III: The Evolved Next-Generation System - A merged future

By the end of this presentation, attendees will:

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

C1 Advances and Improvements in Procedures, Methods and Equipment in the Histology Laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital

James F. Happel, DLM (ASCP) HTL

Massachusetts General Hospital’s Surgical Pathology Laboratory has integrated innovative processes based on the LEAN principles into the histology laboratory that are designed to improve surgical specimen throughput. MGH’s use of barcode labeled requisitions, specimen containers, tissue cassettes and slides provides for excellent asset tracking from specimen accession through slide delivery. Quality Control, asset management and disposal, benchmarking and monitoring of employee productivity is likewise greatly enhanced using this system. With PowerPath Client software (a program developed at Massachusetts General) as its backbone, tracking specimens from accession to grossing through processing and sectioning, staining, coverslipping and slide delivery are streamlined. Several new software innovations have been developed and implemented at MGH that further expedite specimen throughput. MGH prides itself on being an industry leader when it comes to laboratory automation and, in that vein, is currently working with several manufacturers to help evaluate the efficacy of innovative histology laboratory instrumentation. Some of the advances under investigation in order to determine their place in the “Automated Histology Laboratory” of the future include Whole Slide Imaging and Multi-Spectral Imaging. This presentation will go through the entire specimen processing procedure at Massachusetts General highlighting the newly developed software solutions and will discuss some of the software that is still “on the drawing board”.

By the end of this presentation, attendees should be able to leave with anunderstandingof the equipment used in today’s histology laboratories across the countryas well as gaining an understanding of the work flow and staffing currently being used atMassachusetts General Hospital

Informatics Initiatives and RFID Specimen Management Project at Mayo Clinic

Keith J. Kaplan, MD and Schuyler O. Sanderson, MD

The Division of Anatomic Pathology strives to be an international leader by functioning as a team whose members are committed to: Providing the highest quality pathology patient services in an efficient and cost effective manner first, while also achieving excellence in educational activities and continuously engaging in academic and diagnostic activities that broaden the expertise of our own faculty and expand our understanding of human disease and the discipline of pathology.

The use of informatics within the division includes digital image analysis (DIA), digital imaging, telepathology and RFID initiatives to help achieve these goals. These applications and their use in clinical and research applications will be discussed.

A passive-tag RFID system (3M) was installed at Mayo Clinic Rochester to manage biopsy specimens collected in the GI Endoscopy suites. Tracking pads were installed in the collection areas, pneumatic tube stations, central processing laboratory, and accessioning area of Anatomic Pathology. The system was piloted in 2006 and a full roll-out was deployed in March 2007.

Passive RFID tags are applied to the bottom of all specimen containers. During the collection/labeling phase of specimen handling, the blank tag is activated and programmed with the patient’s information and specimen source and clinical request specific to the individual specimen in the bottle. Each specimen bottle is tagged and programmed. The 3M database collects information and tracks the specimens during delivery to the laboratory. Upon receipt in the AP laboratory, the data is transferred into the AP LIS at the command of the laboratory personnel. This is done in the absence of a paper requisition.

The system design, with paper requisition elimination, has allowed for the reduction in data transcription points from five to one, allowed for a 0.5 FTE cost avoidance in the laboratory, saved an average 2 minutes per procedure for nursing staff, allowed for a direct data input to the diagnostic pathologist, and allowed for specimen tracking with work-in-progress visibility for administrative functions. This has overall yielded improved quality and safety.

By the end of this presentation, attendees will:

C2 Next Generation Structured Data Reporting in Pathology: Closing the Communication Gap from Practice to Research

Rebecca Crowley, MD and J. Mark Tuthill, MD

Pathology and Laboratory Medicine is inherently a communication oriented medical specialty. As diagnosticians practicing across a wide range of patients and serving nearly every clinical provider in the healthcare enterprise, our need to communicate laboratory findings and diagnostic pathology is critical to the efficiency and quality of healthcare. To date, such communications have been rigorously structured in the clinical laboratory. The same is only marginally true of anatomic pathology reporting. This session will focus on the creation of pathology reports and the tools used to structure data within the pathology report. Beginning with a historical discussion of "synoptic reporting", the discussion will move on to a detailed treatment of its evolution into "structured data reporting". In particular, structured data in the pathology report will by examined in light of its role as a consumable for translational research. The presentations will identify where gaps exist between the pathology reports and customers needs and how this communication gap can be closed by rigorously structuring data and using ontological and data communication standards.

By the end of this presentation, attendees should be able to:

D1 The Virtopsy Project: Novel Approaches in Post-Mortem Imaging

Stephan A. Bolliger, MD

The speakers will discuss the Virtopsy Project, which is dedicated to forensic imaging from Bern, Switzerland and demonstrate post-mortem imaging with special focus on post-mortem angiography.

By the end of this presentation, attendees should be able to: Have a general insight into the field of post-mortem imaging

Virtual Autopsy and Postmortem Multidetector CT Imaging

Angela D. Levy, Col, MC

By the end of this presentation, attendees should be able to:

D2 Structured Reporting: Implementation Challenges in an Integrated Health System

Elizabeth H. Hammond MD

By the end of this presentation, attendees should be able to:

Toward an Informatics Infrastructure for Training Programs in Anatomic Pathology

W. Stephen Black-Schaffer, MD

The growing complexity of both accreditation requirements and educational expectations for anatomic pathology training programs imposes an increasing burden on program directors and administrators.  Given the universal use of information systems to record and communicate anatomic pathology services and the increasingly ubiquitous use of electronic medical records in academic centers, a thoughtful approach to the application of informatics in education management has the potential not only to alleviate this burden, but actually to refine and customize the educational experience of individual trainees.  With increasing sub specialization of services and faculty, even the routine assessment of trainee activities has become logistically more challenging, and the use of training program management software systems has become more widespread.  Information is presented on practical aspects of the use of such systems in monitoring and documenting trainee educational progress toward competency and duty hour compliance.

By the end of this presentation, attendees should be able to:

Thursday, October 23, 2008

E1 Development and Distribution of Transplant Pathology Utilizing Informatics and Imaging Tools

Anthony J. Demetris, MD

The presentation will describe use of the informatics and imaging tools to create and distribute expertise in a specialty area of pathology. The developments will be traced over a period of 10 years when and how the service evolved from static image-based, through remote microscopy, and then on to whole digital slide imaging and a "digital pathology suite". The needs fulfilled included distribution of expertise; rapid and robust reporting of pathology results in multi-center trials; and creation of "community research resources".


By the end of this presentation, the participants should be able to:

Ubiquitous Imaging and Pathology Performance

Steve A. McClain, MD

Scan a barcode, Capture an Image; Repeat. The author explores the impact of integrating digital devices in pathology practice, critically examining quality, error rate, and performance.

Specific session objectives for understanding:

E2 Predicting the Future of Laboratory Informatics by Helping Create It

Anand S. Dighe, MD, PhD

It is clear that the information based society is here to stay.  Organizations that will thrive in the global information environment are those that are able to identify value, create, share, and evolve their information assets.  From its inception, the clinical laboratory has been an information generating enterprise, providing both test results and expertise to support clinical decision-making.  However, the future success of Pathology departments in the information marketplace is not assured.  In order to prevent becoming marginalized in future models of clinical care delivery laboratories must evolve to develop and embed critical laboratory knowledge throughout their institutions.  In addition, recent technology advances have created new opportunities to contribute to patient care using collaborative technologies. In this session we will discuss the steps each laboratory should be taking to ensure their future relevance to clinical care.

By the end of this presentation, attendees should be able to:

Array-Based Virtual Karyotyping:  Ready for the Clinic but Waiting for a LIMS

Jill M. Hagenkord, MD

Array-based copy number platforms, such as array comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH) and SNP arrays, allow us to detect genomic changes below the resolution of conventional cytogenetics.  Microdeletions and microduplications are known to be involved in both genetic diseases and oncogenesis, so a clinical assay that can detect them is highly desirable, and several laboratories are already offering these platforms clinically.  However, the information management options for these platforms are currently limited.  While the molecular LIMS community was anticipating and focusing on data management for the clinical use of expression arrays, the array-based copy number platforms snuck in the back door to the clinic.  After a brief overview of the technology, this talk will outline the informatics challenges of array-based copy number platforms, present home-grown solutions, and provide an update on the status of commercial options.

By the end of this presentation, attendees will:

F1 Semantic Annotation of Images in Pathology and Radiology: Synergy Between Pathology and Radiology

Daniel L. Rubin, MD, MS and Metin N. Gurcan, PhD

It is challenging for physicians to effectively access and use images with the same facility as non-image numerical data in the advent of the information explosion, because much of the key content such as anatomy, observations, and diagnoses are not machine-accessible. This course will provide pathologists, researchers, medical technologists and laboratory personnel with essential information on the requirements of semantic annotation in of images in pathology and how this field can benefit from related activities in radiology. In radiology, new methods and tools are being developed to improve access to large distributed collections of medical images in cyberspace as well as within hospital information systems. The course will describe efforts to make the human and machine descriptions of image content accessible to machines through annotation using ontologies--specifications of the entities, their attributes, and relationships among the entities in a domain of discourse. Tools will be described that enable physicians to collect semantic image annotations as they view and report the images. Ontology-based annotations will enable images to be related to non-image data having related semantics and relevance. Similarities and differences between radiological and pathological markup and annotations will be discussed in depth and potential implementation methodologies will be presented. A use case will be presented to give the attendees an idea of why pathology markups and annotation will be useful and how it will enable their work in the information-intensive era.

By the end of this presentation, attendees will:

F2 Building and Using Cancer Databases

James Michaelson PhD

Many academic medical centers contain massive amounts of data on cancer, from multiple sources, which can profitably be used to learn a great deal about cancer.  However, when examined from just a single source, such data may be highly unreliable. For example, as many as 20% of deceased patients entered into hospital tumor registries may be identified by the registry as alive.  I shall review how it is possible to combine data from multiple sources (hospital tumor registry, pathology databases, hospital data resources, state and national death certificate databases, social security master death index, etc.) to create highly reliable and informative sources of data.  I shall also review our how my group has used such data in the development of improved mathematical methods for predicting cancer outcome (http://www.cancer-math.net).

By the end of this presentation, attendees should be able to:

Establishing Indicators for Cancer Care and the Role of the Hospital Cancer Registry and Other Oncology Data Sources

Sharon B. Winters, MS, RHIA, CTR
 
Overview:

With the rising cost of health care in the United States, the concept of “Pay For Performance” (PFP) continues to grow.  While it isn’t certain the country can successfully and simultaneously address the vast landscape of contributing factors to the cost of health care delivery, it can, perhaps, address a standard evaluation process for quality of health care delivery.  PFP has been on the radar screen for many large government agencies in the recent decades.  This presentation will provide an overview on the PFP concept and identify areas where advances are being made to evaluate performance using cancer registry and pathology laboratory databases and other electronic medical record data.
 
Objectives:

G1 Fellowship Programs in Pathology Informatics

Michael J. Becich MD PhD, John R. Gilbertson MD, J. Mark Tuthill MD, Anil Parwani MD PhD, Ulysses J. Balis MD PhD
 
In recognition on the importance of informatics in pathology, “pathology informatics fellowships" are being developed at growing number of institutions. However, "pathology informatics" is a diverse field incorporating aspects of bio-informatics, classical medical informatics, computer science, engineering, statistics, imaging, public policy, system management and institutional leadership. The result has been a wide range of training programs and experiences.
 
The session will discuss the history, nature and future of pathology informatics programs, highlight two very different, fellowship programs, and, through a structured roundtable of fellowship directors, compare the structure, approach,  scope and the challenges faced of a number of active pathology informatics fellowship programs.

By the end of this presentation, attendees should be able to:

Scientific Sessions

Monday, October 20, 2008
1:00 pm 6:00 pm
Moderated by David J. Foran, PhD

The Scientific Session will consist of a series of 15 minute talks, each of which is immediately followed by questions, which are posed by the audience. Researchers interested in making presentations as part of these sessions should submit a 350 word abstract. There is particular interest in submissions that focus on four main areas of sub-specialization: pathology informatics, biomedical informatics, and molecular pathology and radiology imaging. Recommended topics include but are not limited to: controlled vocabulary, digital microscopy, telemedicine, computer-assisted decision support, pattern recognition, tissue and gene array analysis, data-mining, education, outcomes research, clinical imaging, optics, imaging storage and management, standardization, automation, image based query, integration and workflow.

Recognition will be based on how the presenter’s work furthers the fields of informatics and imaging as well as on the content and clarity of the presentation. The work may be motivated by problems encountered in pathology and/or oncology and reflect research on algorithms, systems, software, databases, or it may describe novel laboratory applications and any new technologies or systems impacting informatics. Presenters may employ PowerPoint, multimedia, and/or Internet-based technologies. Awards will be presented on Tuesday evening at the Awards Dinner.

Authors wishing to participate in the Scientific Session must submit an abstract for inclusion in the published proceedings. Electronic submission is required, and submissions must adhere to formatting guidelines. All accepted abstracts will be published in the Archives of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. In order to allow sufficient time for reviewing abstracts and notifying authors of decisions, there will be a firm deadline of June 30, 2008 for all submissions.

APIII 2008 will feature three main areas of concentration:

  1. Pathology Informatics (such as controlled vocabulary, decision support, digital microscopy, distance learning)
  2. Biomedical Informatics (such as oncology outcomes research, clinical trials informatics, consumer-health informatics, computational biology, data-mining, tissue and gene array analysis)
  3. Molecular Pathology and Radiology Imaging (such as enhanced reporting, optics, storage and management, standardization, automation, image based query, integration and workflow) Information Sessions