Pathologists screen tissue samples for diseases like cancer and to diagnose illnesses, monitor disease progression and manage therapies. The application of digital technology in pathology has the potential to transform this previously analog practice by enabling greater speed, collaboration and automated diagnosis using algorithms. The technology-focused team at Omnyx needed help defining the workflow for histologists who excise tissue, stain it and route it to the right pathology benches for analysis.
We conducted research with histologists and pathologists to inform the product strategy, design and development of hardware/software solutions that provide a fully digital workflow from surgical suite to histology lab, to pathologists. Our work introduced opportunities for synchronous and asynchronous collaboration, applications of social tools and analysis of data for efficiency improvements in a clinical setting. The product received several patents, including one for our work on the histology workflow management system.
Comparing legacy and digital workflows helped highlight true benefits of this new platform. Research and interviews in histology labs helped us understand current conventions that could be carried over to digital interactions.
Our work was shared and vetted iteratively with a panel of pathologists. Final designs were implemented through agile development teams at Omnyx.
