BEST, Netherlands, March 6, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Royal Philips
(NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA) and LabPON, the first clinical laboratory to
transition to 100 percent histopathology digital diagnosis,
today announced its plans to create a digital database of massive
aggregated sets of annotated pathology images and big data
utilizing Philips IntelliSite Pathology Solution1. The
database will provide pathologists with a wealth of clinical
information for the development of image analytics algorithms for
computational pathology and pathology education, while promoting
research and discovery to develop new insights for disease
assessment, including cancer.
Deep learning algorithms have the potential to improve the
objectivity and efficiency in tumor tissue diagnosis. In recent
years, 'deep learning' techniques for image analysis have quickly
become the state of the art in computer vision and has surpassed
human performance in a number of tasks2. The challenge
for executing deep learning techniques is having access to a
database with sufficient high volume and high quality data from
which to develop the algorithms. As one of the largest pathology
laboratories in the Netherlands,
LabPON will contribute its repository of approximately 300,000
whole slide images (WSI) they prospectively create each year to the
database. This will contain de-identified datasets of annotated
cases that are manually commented by the pathologist, and will
comprise of a wide variety of tissue and disease types, as well as
other pertinent diagnostic information to facilitate deep
learning.
"Deep learning focuses on the development of advanced computer
programs that automatically understand and digitally map tissue
images in considerable detail: The more data available, the more
refined the computer analysis will be," said Peter Hamilton, Group Leader Image Analytics at
Philips Digital Pathology Solutions. "Together, LabPON and Philips
have the competence and skills to realize this."
During a time where the pathologist shortage is mounting and
cancer caseloads are increasing3,4, the accurate
diagnosis and grading of cancer has become increasingly complex,
placing significant pressures on pathology services. Technologies
such as computational pathology, could help pathologists with tools
to work in the most efficient way possible.
"The role of the pathologist remains important by making the
definitive diagnosis, which has a high impact on the patient's
treatment. Software tools could help to relieve part of the
pathologists' work such as identifying tumor cells, counting
mitotic cells or identifying perineural and vaso-invasive growth,
as well carrying out measurements in a more accurate and precise
way," said Alexi Baidoshvili, pathologist at LabPON. "This
ultimately could help to improve the quality of diagnosis and make
it more objective."
Next to the development of computational algorithms for
diagnostic use, Philips intends to make available the database to
research institutions and other partners through its translational
research platform. This could enable selected parties to
interrogate and combine massive datasets with the goal to discover
new insights that ultimately could be translated into new
personalized treatment options for patients.
Philips is showcasing its portfolio of pathology solutions in
booth #202 at the The United
States and Canadian Academy of Pathology (USCAP) 2017 Annual
Meeting. For more information on Philips' presence at USCAP, visit
www.philips.com/digitalpathology and
follow @Philips_Path for #USCAP17 updates throughout
the event.
1 Philips IntelliSite Pathology Solution is CE-IVD
marked for use in primary diagnosis. In the United States, the Philips IntelliSite
Pathology Solution pending review of a request for de novo
classification.
2 Kaiming He Xiangyu et
al. Delving Deep into Rectifiers: Surpassing Human-Level
Performance on ImageNet Classification. And
LeCun, Yann, Yoshua Bengio, and
Geoffrey Hinton. "Deep learning."
Nature 521, no. 7553 (2015): 436-444
3 The Royal College of Pathologists,
https://www.rcpath.org/profession/workforce/workforce-planning.html,
Accessed December 2016.,
4 International Agency for Research on Cancer and Cancer
Research UK. World Cancer Factsheet. Cancer Research UK,
London, 2014.
For further information, please contact:
Hans Driessen
Philips Digital Pathology Solutions
Tel: +31 6 10610 417
E-mail: hans.driessen@philips.com
About Royal
Philips
Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA) is a
leading health technology company focused on improving people's
health and enabling better outcomes across the health continuum
from healthy living and prevention, to diagnosis, treatment and
home care. Philips leverages advanced technology and deep clinical
and consumer insights to deliver integrated solutions.
Headquartered in the Netherlands,
the company is a leader in diagnostic imaging, image-guided
therapy, patient monitoring and health informatics, as well as in
consumer health and home care. Philips' health technology portfolio
generated 2016 sales of EUR 17.4
billion and employs approximately 71,000 employees with
sales and services in more than 100 countries. News about Philips
can be found at www.philips.com/newscenter.
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