The Path to a Digital Pathology Archive

Student: Morgan Belting, 2021-2022

Sponsor: South Bend Medical Foundation, South Bend, Indiana

The South Bend Medical Foundation is a non-profit organization that provides anatomic pathology services to hospitals, clinics, and research institutions primarily in Indiana. The Foundation has just over 2 million historic anatomic slides that have the potential to be processed so they are available digitally on demand. Digitizing this material creates a new data element that combines both images and metadata. The project will allow the archived material to be continuously utilized instead of being stored away for medical record purposes only. Having the archived material easily accessible can help the Foundation’s current pathologists work more efficiently and accelerate the development of tools that will assist pathologists worldwide. For the community and beyond, the historical slides and related patient data could contribute to medical research and product development that will profoundly impact our understanding and treatment of cancer and other debilitating diseases.