PathLAKE Plus: The Vision

PathLAKE Plus aims to bring digital pathology and AI to the NHS on a clinical scale. In addition, the project looks to safeguard and support future research into digital pathology and AI.

To achieve this, PathLAKE Plus looked to:
• Digitalise NHS Trusts within the PathLAKE Plus Consortium.
• Enhance the reporting capabilities of over 300 pathologists.
• Quadruple the number of images held by the PathLAKE data lake, to
support future digital pathology and AI research.
• Deploy AI in labs within the PathLAKE Plus Consortium.
• Bring the benefits of digital technologies to a population of over 17 million people.
• Generate the data needed to develop the business cases required for future digital deployments in the NHS.

PathLAKE

Why are we doing this? What can digital pathology and AI offer the NHS?

The deployment of digital pathology in NHS labs is looking to achieve the following benefits:
• Improved workflow efficiencies
• Cost savings
• Improved patient pathways

Once an NHS lab is digitalised, it can then also deploy AI. As well as enhancing the benefits of digital pathology, AI is predicted to bring the following advantages:
• Access to advanced diagnostic and screening tools.
• Improvement to the quality and standardisation of reporting.
• A reduction in reporting times.
• Faster interventions and improved patient outcomes.

The Start of PathLAKE Plus


The PathLAKE Plus Consortium started as a collection of 10 NHS Trusts partners, which received grant funding to deploy digital pathology and AI in their labs. The selection of these Trusts for membership was based off the following criteria:

• Geographic and/or strategic alliance to founding hubs
• Digital readiness to adopt these new technologies.
• Existing links to a genomic laboratory hub network
• Executive level support for participation
• Identification as a regional digital champion.
• A shared passion for bringing digital pathology and AI into their labs for the benefit of patients.

PathLAKE Plus is supported by funding from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) through UK Research and Innovation’s (UKRI) Data to Early Diagnosis and Precision Medicine challenge, alongside additional scale-up funding for the digital pathology and imaging AI programme from the Department for Health and Social Care (Project number 106232 ) .

Hyperlink to government press release: Funding boost for artificial intelligence in NHS to speed up diagnosis of deadly diseases - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

PathLAKE Plus Objectives

By the end of the project, our ambition is to have completed the following objectives:

  • 80% of histopathology slides being reported digitally at all PathLAKE Plus partner sites
  • A 12% gain in pathologists’ reporting productivity at all PathLAKE Plus partner sites
  • Network reporting enabled across the consortium.
  • Deployment of 2 to 3 commercial AI solutions at digitalised grant-funded sites.
  • Equitable patient access to AI-supported pathology services.
  • To troubleshoot the introduction of digital pathology and AI into routine practice
  • To develop the digital standards for future deployments across the NHS.
View Press Release

Geographical reach of
PathLAKE Plus

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