Digital pathology in action: Interview with Omnyx CEO Mamar Gelaye

[audio mp3="https://healthbb.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/hbdew0031-david-e-williams-interviews-omnyx-ceo-mamar-gelaye.mp3"][/audio]Pathologists are physicians who play a critical role in disease diagnosis and treatment planning. Yet if you're a patient, chances are you've never met one, because pathologists typically work in the hospital laboratory, analyzing slides and providing their reports to the treating physician.Turns out pathology is also one of the last areas of medicine to embrace the digital revolution. That's changing now as pathology discovers the benefits of digital solutions and connects more directly to the rest of the care team.The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) is a leader in the field of digital pathology, and has teamed with GE Healthcare in a joint venture called Omnyx. I interviewed Omnyx CEO Mamar Gelaye to learn more.Here's what we discussed. (Use the timestamps if you want to jump to specific questions):

1. What role does pathology play? Why does it matter to the patient? (0:11)
2. We've all heard the term "staging" but what does it mean? (1:25)
3. How does a traditional hospital pathology lab operate? (2:06)
4. What are the limitations of the traditional approach? How does digital help? (4:04)
5. Why is pathology among the last to digitize? (7:13)
6. What elements are digitized?  (8:06)
7. When a pathology lab goes digital, what happens to all the physical specimens? (8:56)
8. What impact does digital pathology have on patient care? (9:48)
9. Why are UPMC and GE working together? (11:25)
10. What is the long-term potential of digital pathology? (13:37)
11. Is it possible to use digital pathology to extend the team beyond the walls of a single hospital? (14:44)

---By healthcare business consultant David E. Williams, president of Health Business Group.