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

根据加拿大癌症协会（CCS）的数据，“癌症是加拿大的主要死因，占所有死亡人数的30%。此外，根据2010年CCS报告：“预计加拿大49%的男性和45%的女性在一生中会患上癌症”。类似的统计数据在世界各地都可以看到。常规检查、放射学检查和不同的检测程序（尿液、血液等）都被用作任何医疗保健系统中诊断框架的一部分。然而，活检被认为是诊断许多类型癌症所需的最终步骤，如果不是全部的话。然后，病理学家使用显微镜或数字扫描仪对活检样本进行分析，并撰写诊断报告。因此，癌症诊断的准确性在很大程度上取决于病理学实验室的设备、程序和人类知识。随着数字病理学的出现，越来越多的专家使用扫描仪从活检样本中获取图像。实验室技术人员必须手动和目视确保活检样本在放入扫描仪之前已准备就绪且无碎片和伪影。迫切需要开发一种设备，一方面减少错误和处理时间，另一方面提高病理报告的准确性。我们在滑铁卢大学的Kimia实验室，与Huron Digital Pathology（加拿大唯一一家制造，销售和出口数字病理学机器的公司）合作，计划开发第一个负担得起的设备和软件，以检测一组伪影和错误，如漂浮物，气泡和标记。该项目的好处不仅限于通过提供第一个病理学质量辅助工具来增加加拿大数字病理学品牌的销售，而且还将减少提供报告的时间以及增加病理学报告的准确性。在某些情况下，它也可以帮助防止重复活检。

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.