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| Omnyx Pathologist Workstation--Courtesy of GE Healthcare |
GE Healthcare ($GE) announced that its diagnostic laboratory company, Clarient, will soon deploy Omnyx's proprietary software, as pathology pivots away from visual diagnosis and toward quantitative computer-based tools.
Omnyx is a joint venture between GE Healthcare and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Its tools include digital workstations for pathologists and histologists that enable remote access and organization of digitized images. Its scanners magnify slides by a factor of up to 60 and perform analysis such as automated detection of tissue, according to the Omnyx website.
Clarient says the tools will help improve the accuracy of diagnosis of diseases like breast cancer and cites studies showing that a 10% error rate among pathologists' diagnosis is fairly common.
"The clinical reality is that fighting cancer begins with an accurate diagnosis," said Clarient Chief Medical Officer Dr. Kenneth Bloom. "Cancer diagnosis and treatment is most effective as it becomes more personalized--and that means the role of the pathologist is crucial. By teaming up with Omnyx, we are helping to ensure that regardless of location or the size of the pathology lab in your hospital, a pathologist has a network that can discuss and help them identify the characteristics of a tumor, and offer more personalized diagnoses and treatments."
Clarient assists in diagnostics and drug development out of its Aliso Viejo, CA, CLIA-certified lab. Its clinical pathologists perform a variety of tests and services of tissue samples, such as cytogenetic karyotyping to analyze the genome of malignant cancer cells and diagnostic tests for various genetic biomarkers.
It uses the MultiOmyx platform for advanced analysis of pathological slides.
"As pathologists take on greater workloads, the emerging field of digital pathology allows them to review cases jointly, more quickly and more accurately thanks to collaborative input from peers across the globe," said Mamar Gelaye, CEO of Omnyx, in a statement. "Our Clarient and Omnyx alliance will provide pathologists with state-of-the-art testing and diagnostic services to bring digital solutions as a mainstream offering in the healthcare world."
- read the release