Clinical Scorecard: The Gross Room’s Digital Makeover

At a Glance

Key Highlights

• Gross specimens vary in size, shape, orientation, texture, and clinical context, making digitization more complex than digitizing standardized glass slides.
• Digital grossing technologies include annotated photography, specimen radiography, three-dimensional imaging, voice recognition, and adaptive templates.
• Interoperability can keep images, measurements, annotations, and sampling details linked to specimens throughout the pathology workflow.
• Computational tools may support reproducible measurement and automate repetitive tasks, while professionals retain responsibility for decisions requiring judgment.
• Successful adoption should begin with a defined laboratory problem; cost and leadership support are among the factors discussed.

Guideline-Based Recommendations

Diagnosis

• The interview notes that much of the information needed for staging comes from the gross specimen.

Management

• The interview suggests identifying which aspects of grossing technology could improve and introducing tools without disrupting professional judgment.
• The interview describes interoperability as keeping images, measurements, annotations, sampling details, and other observations linked to the specimen and accessible throughout the workflow.
• The interview frames computational tools as support for the person making decisions, not as replacements for professional judgment.

Monitoring & Follow-up

• The interview describes digital imaging as a potential way to make measurements more reproducible and quantify features that are difficult to estimate consistently.
• The interview discusses structured information linked to specimen images and computational tools for repetitive tasks as possible workflow improvements.

Risks

• The source describes variability in specimen size, shape, orientation, texture, and clinical context as a challenge for digitization.
• The source warns that information can be trapped in standalone cameras or workstations rather than remaining accessible across the workflow.
• The source cautions against replacing professional judgment with an algorithm.

Patient & Prescribing Data

Not specified; the article discusses laboratory workflows and specimen examination rather than patient treatment.

No prescribing or treatment regimen is provided. The article notes that some visually estimated gross-specimen percentages may influence treatment.

Clinical Best Practices

• Consider structured information linked directly to specimen images, as discussed in the interview.
• The interview identifies measurement, documentation, specimen identification, tracking, calculations, photography, and dictation as repetitive tasks that technology might support.
• The interview emphasizes providing better information to the professional making the decision rather than replacing professional judgment.
• Consider interoperability so specimen information remains accessible throughout the pathology workflow.

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