With digital tools, artificial intelligence (AI), and deeper cross-team collaboration, Spectrum Healthcare Partners’ pathologists are improving accuracy, speeding up diagnoses, and expanding access – no matter where patients live.
What Is a Pathologist?
Pathologists are doctors who work in a lab where they look at all the tissue and fluid samples taken from patients. Those samples can include blood, skin and tumor biopsies, PAP smears, plus many other types of tissue analysis performed by Spectrum pathologists.
Traditionally, the pathologist inspects the tissue under a microscope to find out if cancer or some other disease or disorder is present. Their analysis of what they see under the microscope guides the treatment options your primary care physician, surgeon, or other doctor offers to you.
What Is Digital Pathology and How Is it Being Used at Spectrum?
With digital pathology, a lab technician digitally scans the tissue samples into a high-resolution image. The pathologist then views the enlarged image of the sample through specialized software on a computer, rather than looking at them under a traditional microscope.
“Building out digital pathology is incredibly data-intensive and we’re still early in the process,” says Michael Harvey, MD, managing director for Spectrum’s pathology division and chair of the Digital Pathology Innovation and Compliance Committee.
However, he says, they are at the start of a system that will change how teams work together – from signing out cases, which is when the pathologist finalizes their description of what they see in the tissue sample and it becomes part of your medical record, to delivering diagnostic reports.
“I think we’re about to hit that steep part of the curve where everything takes off quickly, both in terms of what we can do and how much this will transform the field,” says Dr. Harvey.
How Is AI Already Being Used in Pathology?
While Spectrum has not yet deployed AI algorithms to assist with diagnostic sign-out, artificial intelligence is already playing a role behind the scenes – starting with quality control.
“After we scan a slide using the Pramana system, an AI algorithm checks the image to make sure it accurately reflects what’s on the glass slide,” explains Dr. Harvey. “One key process it monitors is Z-stitching. Because tissue under the cover slip isn’t always perfectly flat, the scanner takes images at different focus levels, then stitches them together into one clear, flat image.”
AI is also beginning to support pathologists in two key areas:
- Prostate biopsies: AI can create color-coded “heat maps” that highlight areas of biopsy tissue most likely to contain cancer. These visual guides help pathologists identify subtle signs of disease and improve the detection of small or early-stage tumors that could otherwise be overlooked.
- Lymph node biopsies: AI can detect even very small clusters of cancer cells on digital pathology slides. By highlighting suspicious areas for review, AI helps pathologists identify tiny metastases that might otherwise be difficult to spot. In some cases, this can reduce the need for additional tissue sections or special stains used to make cancer cells easier to see.
What Is AI’s Biggest Advantage in Pathology?
One of AI’s biggest advantages in pathology is the ability to improve consistency and standardization across sites.
“The algorithms will help standardize how we view tissue and eventually how we report it,” says Dr. Harvey. “That’s especially important in cancer cases. AI helps us follow national protocols and reduce variability, so every patient receives the same high-quality report and accurate diagnoses – no matter where the pathologist is located.”
How Spectrum Is Partnering with NorDx on Smarter Pathology
Through its partnership with NorDx Laboratories, Spectrum Healthcare Partners has formed a new digital pathology steering committee – with leaders from both organizations – to help guide the way. Together, this partnership is advancing digital pathology to reduce delays, improve turnaround times, and expand access to care across Maine.
“It’s refreshing to be this involved,” says Dr. Harvey. “We’re working together on everything from the technical build to vendor selection, long-term storage, image management, and the bigger-picture goals.”
“This partnership is helping us think differently – not just about what digital pathology can do, but how we can integrate it in a way that improves care statewide,” says Guillermo Martinez-Torres, MD, FCAP, president of NorDx Laboratories. “By combining our technical capabilities with Spectrum’s diagnostic expertise, we’re creating a stronger and more connected system for patients and providers.”
How Digital Pathology Supports Collaboration in Real Time
“Instead of waiting hours for a courier, a scanned slide hits our work queue instantly,” says Dr. Harvey. “We can review a cancer case right away, order stains faster, and get answers to the patient sooner.”
That same access speeds up collaboration across locations. “Whether it’s a case across town or at Harvard or Mayo, we can log in and look at it immediately,” Dr. Harvey says. “We can turn around consults in 24 hours instead of two weeks.”
Peer reviews also happen electronically – often the same day
– cutting a full day off the diagnostic process and connecting more specialists more efficiently.
How AI Brings Equity to Diagnostics
AI and digital tools are leveling the playing field for patients in rural and underserved communities – and bringing specialty-level care closer to home.
“People in rural areas typically have less access to the latest diagnostics and therapies,” says Dr. Harvey. “But with digital pathology and AI, they’ll have access to the same high-level insights as someone in Boston or New York.”
In the future, that access may go even further. Tools in development could flag clinical trial eligibility in real time based on pathology results – opening new doors for patients statewide.
“It’s like a democratization of healthcare,” Dr. Harvey says. “And it could dramatically improve what people experience in these communities.”
Has the Future of AI in Pathology Already Begun?
AI won’t replace pathologists – but it is reshaping the way they work and connect.
With validated data, bias checks, and thoughtful implementation, AI is making diagnostic care faster, safer, and more collaborative.
“As some in the field have noted, AI won’t replace pathologists, but those pathologists who use AI will replace those who don’t,” says Dr. Harvey. “It’s going to make us more efficient, improve safety, and help us care for more folks across Maine – because demand is growing and more patients than ever need us.”
Key Takeaways:
- Pathologists are the doctors who work in labs to analyze all the fluid and tissue samples from patients to diagnose disease accurately.
- Digital pathology uses high-resolution scans of tissue samples instead of traditional microscopes to give an enlarged and detailed view on a computer monitor.
- Digital pathology is incredibly data-intensive, which potentially makes AI a very useful tool in managing and analyzing all the data consistently and quickly.
- Use of AI is very new in digital pathology, but it is already being used in effective ways at Spectrum Healthcare Partners, including:
- Quality control;
- Generating “heat maps,” which are color-coded concentrations of data (for example, to show concentrations of cancer cells in a prostate biopsy);
- Detecting very small amounts of cancer cells in lymph node biopsies.
- Use of AI in pathology is improving consistency and standardization across Spectrum’s pathology sites of service in Maine and New Hampshire.
- AI helps Spectrum pathologists follow national protocols and reduce variability, resulting in the same high-quality reports and accurate diagnoses no matter where a patient lives.
- Spectrum’s partnership with NorDx Laboratories is advancing digital pathology to reduce delays, improve turnaround times, and expand access to care across Maine.
- Digitally scanned tissue slides appear in a pathologist’s work queue instantly, reducing the time it takes to receive a diagnosis.
- Digital pathology allows peer reviews and consultations from pathologists in other geographical locations to happen much faster, which gives access to specialty care to more patients, including those in rural locations and other underserved communities.
- AI tools in development could help more patients become eligible for clinical trials of new treatments.
- Use of AI in digital pathology at Spectrum is making diagnostic care faster, safer, and more collaborative through validated data, bias checks, and thoughtful implementation.
