A Journey to Pathology 3.0: Platform, part 2

Reducing transactional costs is one of the most effective strategies for enhancing the financial efficiency of any business operation. Transactional costs are the expenses incurred during the process of commissioning or providing services. When effectively managed, the consolidation of the pathology network should reduce these costs through streamlined procurement and supply chain management, standardisation, and seamless technology integration. This approach was a megapound success for a few pathology networks that did this well. However, the traditional linear business model has limitations and eventually reaches a plateau.

Luckily, due to technological advances that are the topic of this series of articles, histopathology has an opportunity to move the game to the next level. A platform service model, enabled by the transition from reporting on glass slides to Whole Slide Images, can further reduce transactional costs and unlock previously unattainable scalability levels. The platform service creates value by facilitating exchanges between two or more groups – service users and providers. Unlike traditional linear businesses that produce goods or services, it provides the infrastructure and rules that enable these interactions and create value by enabling interactions between different user groups. Think, for example, about Uber, which connects drivers and riders.

As we suggested last week, while the transition to the new service model may appear straightforward on the surface, it is, in reality, a significant organisational development undertaking. All organisations are dynamic entities shaped by ongoing contradictions. These are best understood in their historical contexts. The current model for pathology was an answer to the twentieth-century hospital-based concentration of resources to provide organised medical care. Organising pathology services within hospital pathology laboratories removed barriers that restricted productivity and efficiency within the constraints that existed at the time. It worked well for many decades, but we need a new solution to address new core limitations.

The Intelligent Digital Pathology Platform Programme (iDPP), which we will present at #DigiPathLondon in two weeks, is an attempt by our team, well experienced in the rapid implementation of innovation at scale and diffusion of IT, to develop and integrate technology to drive the service model transformation. ?The goal is to develop and implement a distributed subspecialist cellular pathology service supported by an end-to-end digital pathology platform.?

A concept fundamental to this programme – and we covered it a few months ago- is distributed work. It is more than just working remotely using new technology. It is a new method for the whole organisation that enables employees to work seamlessly from various locations as an integrated team. It is a critical step for the organisation and development of the cellular pathology workforce fit for the future. Distributed work will provide better work experience for our substantive pathologists and enable us to tap into a large and geographically diverse pool of open talent. The platform service model is permissive for our open talent strategy. It goes beyond a standard ‘gig’ to address the surplus to the diagnostic capacity of the substantive workforce and will include access to niche skills, crowdsourcing and project-based ventures. Next-generation pathology services are set to evolve into more 'distributed' organisations, prioritising talent and project-based collaboration over traditional structures like departments and offices.

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