Next-Gen, High-Capacity Slide Scanner for Digital Pathology to Help Diagnose Cancer

Cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide, accounting for nearly 10 million deaths in 2020, or nearly one in six deaths. Many cancers can be cured if detected early and treated effectively. Now, a new, high-capacity slide scanner creates high-resolution, digital images of stained tissue samples that help to diagnose cancer and determine a patient’s treatment.

Roche Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) has announced the CE launch of the next-generation VENTANA DP 600 slide scanner (CE-IVD marked). This high-capacity slide scanner produces excellent image quality of stained histology slides from patient tissue samples, while providing ease-of-use and workflow flexibility for the pathology lab. The VENTANA DP 600 slide scanner is an important addition to the Roche Digital Pathology portfolio, which provides innovative, high-quality digital solutions that automate tissue diagnostics and empower pathologists to provide faster and more comprehensive diagnostic results to healthcare providers and their patients.

Digital pathology refers to the digitalization of the traditional pathology workflow starting from slide scanning to visualization to analysis. Digital pathology is transforming traditional histopathology by improving efficiency, depth of analysis, and opportunity for collaboration in pathology workflows. Built by pathologists, for pathologists, the end-to-end Roche Digital Pathology solution focuses on maximizing the pathologists' unique training, skills, and vision. The Roche Digital Pathology solution is an integrated solution that combines innovative slide scanners, patient-centric pathology workflow software and image analysis algorithms, working in integrated harmony with the full Roche tissue diagnostics portfolio.

The newest addition to the Roche Digital Pathology portfolio is the 240-slide, high-capacity brightfield VENTANA DP 600 slide scanner that offers workflow flexibility to suit a variety of anatomical pathology labs. Once the slide scanner captures and converts stained tissue on glass slides to digital images, these images can be managed, shared, and analyzed by pathologists and can help determine a cancer patient’s treatment. Roche’s new 240-slide scanner, which builds on the success of the 6-slide VENTANA DP 200 scanner, will help anatomic pathology laboratories accelerate the digitalization of their pathology workflow. Both scanners feature the same innovative optics and dynamic focus technology for high-resolution, high-quality color images that accurately reproduce the image quality that pathologists see under microscopes.

VENTANA slide scanners use tray-based systems engineered with minimal moving parts. The slides move through the system on the tray without interference by a robotic mechanism, allowing for a high quality scan even if the slides are wet, frozen, or if cover slips are slightly off centre. The tray based system eliminates slide-handling errors such as breakage and loss of slides.

“The VENTANA DP 600 slide scanner is an important tool in the advancement of personalized healthcare. In combination with our innovative AI image analysis algorithms, this solution can help ensure that each patient receives the most effective treatment plan possible,” said Thomas Schinecker, CEO of Roche Diagnostics. “It also creates opportunities for better collaboration and remote diagnosis, which can be lifesaving in areas with limited access to pathologists.”

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