Visiopharm®, the Denmark-based leader in artificial intelligence-driven image analysis, tissue mining, and precision pathology, has been granted patents in the US and Europe for an AI and image analysis based approach to quantifying staining quality in tissue sections stained with IHC or ISH based tissue biomarkers.

The use of tissue biomarkers is key to diagnostic treatment decisions, the inclusion of patients in clinical trials, and making critical decisions about entire drug development programs. Yet, staining quality and standardization remains a challenge to the efficient use of tissue biomarkers. External Quality Assurance (EQA) organizations offering proficiency testing programs, such as NordiQC and UK NEQAS, have documented failure rates as high as 30% in diagnostic pathology labs for certain biomarkers.

Through repeated testing and protocol review/recommendations, quality programs play an essential role in managing and improving staining quality, ultimately leading to benefits for patients. Yet EQAs have limitations in terms of the number of runs they can offer per biomarker per year, uniform standards, and the number of labs they can serve.

Quality variations can come from many sources, along the value chain in sample preparation. The frequency in variation of staining quality in a typical pathology lab often exceeds the frequency in EQA proficiency testing, thus creating an unmet need for quality testing.

AI and image analysis for decision support is just one component to improve precision and standardization of biomarker assessment. Managing stain quality and sufficiency are both critical to precision, and issues Visiopharm is addressing as part of our end-to-end quality commitment. We see the technology behind these patents as a first step of the way,

Michael Grunkin PhD, CEO at Visiopharm

“AI and image analysis for decision support is just one component to improve precision and standardization of biomarker assessment. Managing stain quality and sufficiency are both critical to precision, and issues Visiopharm is addressing as part of our end-to-end quality commitment. We see the technology behind these patents as a first step of the way”, said Visiopharm CEO Michael Grunkin, and continued, “later this year we will release a platform that will allow both EQAs and diagnostic pathology labs to leverage the power of AI in proficiency testing and stain quality management. Working closely with UK NEQAS and NordiQC for close to a decade has been instrumental in understanding the requirements for stain quality management tools.”

Despite the ever-expanding array of technological advancements, image-based research remains limited by the lack of integration between analysis applications and the image management systems central to organizing study data. The disconnect creates bottlenecks in running analysis applications at scale and limits the impact that powerful image analysis results can have as a component of high-throughput research.

Streamline digital precision pathology

That is why Visiopharm, the leader in precision pathology software, and Proscia, a leader in digital pathology image and workflow management, have joined forces to integrate image analysis and image management in a single unified solution. The solution enables life sciences organizations to streamline workflows and accelerate breakthroughs by better leveraging computational image data in research and discovery.

Integrating two powerful platforms

Announced in March, the integrated solution connects Visiopharm’s AI-image analysis suite with Proscia’s Concentriq® for Research image management solution. The integration allows scientists and pathologists to automatically stream images from Concentriq into the VIS suite for analysis and then push results back into Concentriq, where they can be visualized and incorporated into ongoing studies by collaboration partners around the globe.

With a library of over 100 image analysis applications ready to apply to tissue data plus the possibility to modify and create new applications, the Visiopharm software suite enables virtually endless possibilities when it comes to discovering cells, tissues, regions, or any other important piece of data within whole slide images.

Concentriq for Research is an open digital pathology image management system used by leading life sciences organizations to generate big data insights from tissue-based research. It serves as a central hub for managing single or multi-site studies, connecting image analysis applications, information systems, and scanners to streamline image-based workflows. Through the integration, Visiopharm and Proscia are creating a connected digital ecosystem that eliminates data silos and facilitates the introduction of analysis results into routine research. As a result, users can make faster, more informed decisions by harnessing the power of integrated image analysis at scale.

Watch our joint webinar to learn more

Learn more about the new possibilities to collaborate on digital pathology projects and how Visiopharm’s and Proscia’s integrated solution work in detail? Watch the joint webinar Integrated Image Analysis At Scale: Visiopharm and Proscia’s Unified Solution.