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亡原因，占所有死亡人数的30%。”此外，根据2010年CCS报告：“在加拿大，49%的男性和45%的女性预计将在其一生中患上癌症”。类似的统计数据可以在世界各地观察到。在任何医疗保健系统中，常规检查、放射检查和不同的测试程序（尿液、血液等）都是诊断框架的一部分。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。活检样本然后由病理学家分析，他们使用显微镜或数字扫描仪检查样本并撰写诊断报告。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地确保活检样本准备就绪，并且在放入扫描仪之前没有碎片和人工制品。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，是迫切需要的。我们在滑铁卢大学的Kimia实验室，与休伦数字病理（加拿大唯一一家生产、销售和出口数字病理机器的公司）合作，计划开发有史以来第一个负担得起的设备和软件，以检测一组人工制品和错误，如漂浮物、气泡和标记。这个项目的好处不仅仅是通过提供第一个高质量的病理辅助工具来增加加拿大数字病理品牌的销售额，而且还会减少提供报告的时间，增加病理报告的准确性。在某些情况下，它还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.