A study published in Modern Pathology described a 32-month telepathology collaboration between the University of Texas Health-McGovern Medical School (UTHMMS) and the Ho Chi Minh City Oncology Hospital (HCMCOH) focused on hematopathology consultation using whole-slide imaging (WSI). The researchers evaluated the diagnostic accuracy and efficiency of remote WSI-based case review for hematopathology cases originating from a cancer center in Vietnam, where formal subspecialty hematopathology practice is not established.
Between May 2022 and December 2024, 71 hematopathology cases were submitted for review. Slides were scanned at HCMCOH using the VENTANA DP 200 and Olympus VS120 slide scanners and uploaded to the PathPresenter platform. A hematopathologist at UTHMMS previewed the digital slides prior to real-time discussion through Zoom with HCMCOH pathologists. Each session included 2 to 5 cases. Consultations were supplemented with clinical data, relevant laboratory findings, and immunohistochemical results when available.
The patient cohort ranged from 1 month to 83 years in age, with 36 male and 35 female patients. Lymph node biopsies accounted for 43 percent of specimens, and bone marrow comprised 32 percent. Of the 71 cases, 49 (69 percent) were submitted for diagnostic confirmation and 22 (31 percent) for primary diagnosis. A consensus diagnosis was reached in 69 of 71 cases (97 percent), with the remaining two deemed indeterminate due to sample limitations. Among the 49 confirmation cases, 30 (61 percent) were concordant with the initial diagnosis. Sensitivity and specificity of WSI-based diagnoses were calculated at 95 percent and 94 percent, respectively.
The proportion of cases submitted for primary diagnosis decreased during the project. In the initial 15 teleconferences, 19 of 38 cases (50 percent) required primary diagnosis. In the final 8 conferences, 3 of 33 cases (9 percent) were submitted for this purpose. Average turnaround time was reduced from 7 to 5 days, representing a 30 percent time savings compared with local review.
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