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On the Road to Digital Pathology in Denmark—National Survey and Interviews

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Abstract

Digital pathology (DP) is changing pathology departments dramatically worldwide, yet globally, few departments are presently digitalized for the full diagnostic workflow. Denmark is also on the road to full digitalization countrywide, and this study aim to cover experiences during the implementation process in a national context. Thus, quantitative questionnaires were distributed to all pathology departments in Denmark (n = 13) and distributed to all professions including medical clinical directors, medical doctors (MD) and biomedical laboratory scientists (BLS). For a qualitative perspective, we interviewed four employees representing four professions. Data were collected in 2019–2020. From the questionnaire and interviews, we found strategies differed at the Danish departments with regards to ambitions, technological equipment, workflows, and involvement of type of professions. DP education was requested by personnel. Informants were in general positive toward the digital future but mainly had concerns regarding the political pressure to integrate DP before technological advances are sufficient for maintaining rational budgets, workflows, and for sustaining diagnostic quality. This study is a glance on the Danish implementation process in its early stages from personnel’s point of view. It shows the complexity when large new workflow processes are to be implemented countrywide and with a large diversity of stakeholders like managers, MD, BLS, IT-professionals, and authorities. To ensure best technological and economical solutions and to maintain—or even optimize—diagnostic quality with DP and workflow alignment, we suggest superior inter- and intradepartmental communication. When implementing DP countrywide, a national working group is warranted with the variety of stakeholders represented.

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Data Availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Code Availability

Not applicable.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the clinical directors at the Danish Departments of Pathology for helping us with the distribution of the survey. A great thank you to all respondents who contributed with their views in the survey. We would also like to thank the informants who took out time for the interviews. A special thanks for input to the survey to Thomas Lauridsen, Zealand University Hospital, Roskilde, and Giedrius Lelkaitis, Copenhagen University Hospital, Copenhagen.

Funding

The authors received no funding for this work.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Technology, Faculty of Health, University College Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Julie Smith, Sys Johnsen & Mette Christa Zeuthen

  2. Centre for Engineering and Science, University College Absalon, Næstved, Denmark

    Lisbeth Koch Thomsen & Charlotte Lerbech Jensen

  3. Department of Clinical Pathology, Odense University Hospital, Odense, Denmark

    Niels Marcussen & Stig Hansen

  4. Department of Pathology, Department of Regional Health Research, Hospital Sønderjylland, University of Southern Denmark, Aabenraa, Denmark

    Niels Marcussen

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Contributions

Writing the paper: JS, SJ, MCZ, LKT; data analysis: JS, SJ; study design: JS, CLJ, LKT, NM, SH; data acquisition: CLJ, SJ, MCZ, LKT, JS. All authors read and approved the final paper.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Julie Smith.

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Ethics Approval

Approval from ethics committees was not required for either survey nor interviews.

Consent to Participate

Written informed consent was obtained from informants before each interview.

Consent for Publication

Written informed consent was obtained from informants before each interview.

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The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Smith, J., Johnsen, S., Zeuthen, M.C. et al. On the Road to Digital Pathology in Denmark—National Survey and Interviews. J Digit Imaging 35, 1189–1206 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10278-022-00638-3

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