Introduction:
The demand for pathology informatics has increased as the need for health care is rising daily. The data obtained needs exact interpretation for proper patient care. The data collected helps improve patient care and deliver healthcare. Patient care involves proper safety, efficient, effective, personalized, and responsive care.
What Is Pathology?
The study of disease is called pathology. It acts as a bridge between science and medicine. It lays a foundation for all aspects of patient care, from diagnosis, treatment, genetic technologies, and prevention.
Pathologists play an important role in identifying a disease, researching, advancing medicine, and planning new treatments to fight against viruses, infections, and diseases like cancers.
The reduction in illnesses and major advances in the past 100 years can be credited to the pioneering work of pathologists.
What Is Pathology Informatics?
Pathology informatics was developed for the recognition of pathologists to maintain and enhance the role of their function as diagnostic specialists in medicine. Pathology informatics focuses on patient care and education by applying, developing, and promoting novel and efficient solutions to achieve goals. Data or information is present everywhere. The field of pathology is also bombarded with data from various sources.
Informatics means anything related to computers. Informatics can be defined as the study of how data is acquired, stored, processed, retrieved, analyzed, and presented so that the data is converted into information.
The field of pathology existed before 100 years ago before the computers existed. Since then, there has been a change in the field concerning data, its volume, and the drive to maximize the use of data available at all levels. The large amount of data available has made us rethink and formalize how to deal with the data, leading to the development of new processes and tools.
It is easier and impractical to store large data by using computers. Hence, the computer is an indispensable tool in the field of informatics. Data is fundamental for the practice of informatics. The practice of informatics includes reducing and redefining complex problems, formulating models to solve those problems, developing information systems based on the models, using solutions obtained, assessing the impact, and redesigning the model and systems accordingly.
Informatics needs understanding and familiarity with computers, problem-solving skills, and engineering capabilities.
Information or data about pathology can be collected from sources like omics technology, electronic health records, laboratory information systems, digital pathology, and cohort metadata. The practical knowledge of data is essential for members dealing with pathology to organize and convert them into meaningful information. This information can be later used to improve patient care and education.
Medical informatics can be used to use the data, information, and knowledge to improve human health and the delivery of healthcare services. Pathologists define clinical informatics as the application of information management in healthcare to achieve safe, efficient, effective, personalized, and responsive patient care. The activities related to pathology informatics have applications at individual, institutional, community, and population levels.
The main function of pathology informatics is to provide uninterrupted clinical laboratory information to staff and clinical faculty to produce laboratory results necessary for arriving at a diagnosis of the condition.
The laboratory data gives 60-70 % of the evidence for clinical decisions when caring for patients.
The pathologist's role is to do tissue diagnosis. The details obtained from pathologists help in triggering a clinical response. Examining tissue specimens has been the first mechanism leading to clinical responses or decisions.
Histologic image is considered the richest data source in medicine today. Pathologists interpret this, and it is unlikely to be done electronically. Along with this information, classification processes, duration of the disease condition, clinical impression, past medical history, and signs and symptoms of the diseases are also correlated while making a diagnosis. They incorporate other information from techniques like immunohistochemistry, flow cytometry, and electron microchemistry.
Pathologic informatics is an interdisciplinary information science concerned with the collection, classification, manipulation, storage, retrieval, and dissemination of information to solve problems in pathology. Pathology informatics involves data across laboratory information systems (LIS) and information technology (IT) systems that involve billions of data elements.
This includes the design and implementation of new systems in pathology and IT concerning:
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Hardware infrastructure.
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Models related to data.
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Network.
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Software.
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Security.
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Reporting of a result and display.
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Barcoding.
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Interfacing.
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Digital imaging.
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Improving patient care while preventing errors.
Laboratories produce massive amounts of data, which are managed by pathology informatics and are turned into knowledge to be used by clinicians. Pathologists can become leaders by knowing about analytics that involves structured and standardized data management. This can help facilitate automation and leverage the power of analytics in real-time and retrospectively.
Three steps to be followed by pathologists and lab leaders are
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Get involved in pathology informatics:
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These must understand the best practices in pathology informatics.
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They should work with vendors to advance LIS and EHR (electronic health record) functionality.
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Leadership role in advancing new processes and standards to improve patient care.
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Support and educate providers:
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They should be involved in the development of best practices.
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Education to be given to providers and administrators about laboratory testing.
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They should understand how LIS can support analytics to improve and drive changes.
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Improve patient care and safety:
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They should be involved in educating patients regarding laboratory services.
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They must be part of the patient care teams.
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They must educate third parties regarding laboratory testing.
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They should understand how LIS can support these initiatives.
The rapid pace of change needs even pathologists to become active in pathology informatics. This change has given pathologists and laboratorians the knowledge about medical and IT knowledge to deal with informatics and to give high-quality patient care.
Conclusion:
Pathology informatics stands at the intersection of technology and healthcare, revolutionizing the way to understand, interpret, and utilize diagnostic data. As highlighted throughout this article, the integration of informatics into pathology workflows has ushered in unparalleled advancements in diagnostic accuracy, efficiency, and patient care. Moving forward, continued investment in research, infrastructure, and education will be pivotal in unlocking the full potential of pathology informatics, ensuring that patients worldwide benefit from more precise diagnoses, personalized treatments, and improved outcomes. Informatics provides a pathway for better care through managing and using healthcare data. Pathologists must adapt to IT systems, both EHRs and LISs, for quality data management. This helps benefit pathologists, laboratory staff, and even the healthcare institution.
