Design and Development of Devices and Procedures for Recognizing Artefacts and Foreign Tissue Origin for Diagnostic Pathology

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Based on the Canadian Cancer Society (CCS) "Cancer is the leading cause of death in Canada and is responsible for 30% of all deaths." In addition, based on the 2010 CCS report: "49% of men and 45% of women are expected to develop cancer during their lifetime in Canada". Similar statistics can be observed around the world. Routine checkups, radiological exams, and different testing procedures (urine, blood etc.) are all used as parts of the diagnostic framework in any healthcare system. However, the biopsy is considered as the ultimate step required for the diagnosis of many types of cancer, if not of all. Biopsy samples are then analyzed by pathologists who use microscopes or digital scanners to examine the sample and write a diagnostic report. Hence, the accuracy of the cancer diagnosis is widely based on the devices, procedures and human knowledge in pathology laboratories. With the advent of digital pathology more and more experts are using scanners to acquire images from biopsy samples. Laboratory technicians have to manually and visually make sure that the biopsy samples are ready and free from debris and artefacts before placed in scanners. Developing a device to decrease the errors and processing time in one hand and increasing the accuracy of the pathology reports, on the other hand, is urgently needed. We at Kimia Lab at the University of Waterloo, in cooperation with Huron Digital Pathology (the only company in Canada which manufactures, sales and exports digital pathology machines) are planning to develop the first ever affordable device and software to detect a group of artefacts and errors such as floaters, bubbles, and markers. This project's benefits are not limited to the increase of the Canadian digital pathology brand sale by providing the first quality assistance tool in pathology, but also will reduce the time of providing a report as well as an increment in pathology report's accuracy. In some cases, it also can help to prevent repeated biopsies.