Proscia, a provider of digital and computational pathology solutions, and Unilabs, a provider of diagnostic services, have established a strategic partnership to accelerate the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) in routine pathology practice.
Through the collaboration, Unilabs will validate the efficacy of Proscia’s computational pathology applications and deploy them into its high-throughput workflows, improving diagnostic quality and reducing turnaround times to directly benefit patients and the physicians treating them.
Proscia will bring its experience building AI applications that perform across laboratory settings to the centre of the partnership. It will collaborate with Unilabs to create de-identified data sets, using the latest technology to adhere with data protection regulations, for developing AI solutions that drive meaningful quality and productivity gains. Unilabs will also test the utility of Proscia’s computational applications, generating clinical and economic evidence on their capacity to achieve their intended purposes.
Unilabs will innovate its service offerings through the partnership by beginning to implement computational pathology into its routine workflows leveraging Proscia’s suite of AI applications. Unilabs will initially deploy DermAI, which classifies images of skin biopsies displaying more than 200 diagnoses with a high degree of accuracy, to study the application’s impact on its high-throughput pathology operations.
Dr. Christian Rebhan, chief medical and operations officer at Unilabs, said: “At Unilabs, we pride ourselves on delivering accurate, timely diagnoses. Deploying Proscia’s AI solutions will enable us to provide better care to our patients and better serve our referring physicians.
Claudio Silvestrin, head of the AI Centre of Excellence at Unilabs, added: “The adoption of AI is poised to make the biggest impact on pathology since the introduction of light microscopy over a century ago, and we are excited to chart our path in computational pathology with Proscia.”
In forming this strategic partnership, Unilabs joins the list of academic and commercial laboratories with which Proscia is working to accelerate the adoption of digital and computational pathology in clinical practice. Earlier this year, Proscia announced that LabPON has adopted its CE-IVD certified Concentriq Dx to scale its routine pathology operations amid a surge in demand for diagnostic services. In August 2020, Proscia established a Computational Pathology Centre of Excellence with the University Medical Centre Utrecht. The company also published the results of one of the largest and most comprehensive validation studies performed in pathology to date in support of its DermAI.
Julianna Ianni, VP of AI research & development at Proscia, said: “Proscia is committed to advancing the standard of care, and we will enable this change by driving adoption of computational pathology. In partnering with Unilabs, we are working towards delivering real-world AI solutions that perform across multiple laboratory settings and demonstrating their implementation at scale.”
