DigiPatICS: Digital Pathology Transformation of the Catalan Health Institute Network of 8 hospitals—planification, implementation, and preliminary results

Complete digital pathology transformation for primary histopathological diagnosis is a challenging yet rewarding endeavor. Its advantages are clear with more efficient workflows, but there are many technical and functional difficulties to be faced. The Catalan Health Institute (ICS) has started its DigiPatICS project, aiming to deploy digital pathology in an integrative, holistic, and comprehensive way within a network of 8 hospitals, over 168 pathologists, and over 1 million slides each year. We describe the bidding process and the careful planning that was required, followed by swift implementation in stages. The purpose of the DigiPatICS project is to increase patient safety and quality of care, improving diagnosis and the efficiency of processes in the pathological anatomy departments of the ICS through process improvement, digital pathology, and artificial intelligence tools.
This project was funded by European Regional Development Funds, Programa operatiu FEDER de Catalunya 2014–2020 and SA18-014623 DIGIPATICS. UPC activity in this project was partially supported by PID2020-116907RB-I00 and funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033
Peer Reviewed
Article signat per 18 autors/es: Jordi Temprana-Salvador (1), Pablo López-García (2), Josep Castellví Vives (1),Lluís de Haro (2), Eudald Ballesta (2), Matias Rojas Abusleme (3), Miquel Arrufat (4), Ferran Marques (5), Josep R. Casas (5),Carlos Gallego (6), Laura Pons (7), José Luis Mate (7), Pedro Luis Fernández (7), Eugeni López-Bonet (8), Ramon Bosch (9), Salomé Martínez (10), Santiago Ramón y Cajal (1), and Xavier Matias-Guiu (11,12) // (1) Department of Pathology, Vall d’Hebron University Hospital, CIBERONC, 08035 Barcelona, Spain; (2) Functional Competence Center, Information Systems, Catalan Health Institute (Institut Català de la Salut), 08006 Barcelona, Spain; (3) Center for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Centre de Telecomunicacions i Tecnologies de la Informació, CTTI), Catalan Health Institute (Institut Català de la Salut), 08006 Barcelona, Spain; (4) Economic and Financial Management, Catalan Health Institute (Institut Català de la Salut), 08006 Barcelona, Spain; (5) Image Processing Group, Technical University of Catalonia (UPC), 08034 Barcelona, Spain; (6) Digital Medical Imaging System of Catalonia (SIMDCAT), TIC Salut, 08005 Barcelona, Spain, (7) Department of Pathology, Germans Trias i Pujol University Hospital, 08916 Badalona, Spain; (8) Department of Pathology, Doctor Josep Trueta Hospital of Girona, 17007 Girona, Spain; (9) Department of Pathology, Verge de la Cinta Hospital of Tortosa, 43500 Tarragona, Spain; (10) Department of Pathology, Joan XXIII University Hospital of Tarragona, 43005 Tarragona, Spain; (11) Department of Pathology, Arnau de Vilanova University Hospital, 25198 Lleida, Spain, (12) Department of Pathology, Bellvitge University Hospital, CIBERONC, 08907 Barcelona, Spain
Postprint (published version)