OXFORD University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has become one of the first in the country to fully digitise one of its key departments.

The Trust announced last week it had digitised its cellular pathology (histopathology) department.

Cellular pathology is the study of disease in organs, tissues as well as cells.

The Trust said the change would 'unlock greater collaboration between OUH and its wider network of trusts and pathologists, resulting in more streamlined diagnosis for patients.'

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Professor Clare Verrill, Associate Professor and Honorary Consultant in histopathology at OUH, said: “We have seen a number of urgent cases where we have been able to provide a rapid opinion through digital solutions.

"In one case the digital platform enabled us to secure a crucial second opinion in a matter of hours, enabling the patient to start on life-saving chemotherapy treatment that evening.

"Although it is still early days, we have seen that the Philips IntelliSite platform has great potential to improve diagnosis quality through increased access to further opinions and to help us deliver faster results to patients.”

In a recently published article in the Journal of Clinical Pathology, OUH Histopathology Consultant Dr Lisa Browning noted that as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, there had been a 25 per cent increase in uptake of digital pathology, with pathologists keen to fully validate digitally and provide remote training and ongoing support for this transition successfully via videoconferencing.