Path Predictions

As one year closes, it is always fun to look ahead to the shiny future of innovation in the months ahead – particularly in fast-moving high tech fields! To this end, we threw out a question that we knew no technology leader would be able to resist: what are your predictions for developments in the fields of digital pathology and AI for 2025?

Here is what our panel of industry leaders, early adopters, and digital experts saw in their crystal balls…

AI will increasingly focus on workflow efficiency

By Daniel Roberts, Medical Director, ePathology at Cleveland Clinic Laboratories

We’ll see the introduction of more AI applications that aim to streamline laboratory and pathologist workflows. Tools for biomarker interpretation will still remain in the forefront, but I anticipate a growing number of solutions for these additional use cases – especially since regulatory approvals are not needed for them to make their way into practice. 

We are already seeing both internal teams and pathology AI vendors focus on workflow efficiency. Existing quality assurance and screening algorithms and co-pilots leveraging large language models (LLMs) to facilitate a pathologist’s chart review serve as good examples of AI applications that are being used today. I expect and welcome more AI innovations aimed at finding new workflow efficiencies at every step, from slide preparation to case signout in the new year and beyond. 

The industry will broaden adoption for primary reads and recognize the quality gains driven by AI

By Derek Welch, MD, Chief Medical Officer and Executive Vice President at PathGroup

In 2025, I expect the industry will see much broader adoption of primary read digital pathology as the practicing pathologist population continues to contract. Additionally, clinically significant and impactful AI tools should get real attention by virtue of the quality impact on patient care. These technologies are here, they are real, and developers are ready to exhibit to patients (and payers) their true needle-moving impact on the lives of human beings.

Digitalization and data integration will increase pathologists’ visibility and help them make more informed decisions

By Svenja Lippok, Head of Digital Pathology at Siemens Healthineers

Our prediction is that pathologists will raise both their visibility and their information level through digitalization and data integration. Digitalization will enable pathologists to present their data more effectively to colleagues from other disciplines – for example, in multi-disciplinary conferences. This will help solve previously time-consuming discussions over conflicting findings, because “seeing is believing.” And it will also increase visibility for the work done by pathologists. 

Data integration across departments will give pathologists easier access to relevant information from other departments – the exact position of a biopsy needle or the shape of a mammary carcinoma visualized within the radiology data. With this comprehensive information and a holistic view of patient data, more informed decisions can be made for the best possible diagnostic outcomes. 

Companion diagnostic trials will go digital

By Amanda Hemmerich, Director, Pathology; Surgical, Molecular, and Cytopathologist; Director of Digital Pathology Innovation at IQVIA Laboratories

2025 will be the year that companion diagnostic trials move to digital pathology. This will be enabled by even more regulatory approvals; the momentum we saw last year will accelerate as even more scanners, software platforms, and image analysis algorithms for IHC stains are cleared by the FDA. In turn, life sciences organizations and their CRO partners will be able to more broadly capitalize on all of the benefits of digitization – from efficiency gains and streamlined collaboration to improved patient recruitment. 

It’s not just about the visible spectrum of light anymore

By Bilal Ahmad, Managing Director, Pathology Division at Spectrum Healthcare Partners

We’re already seeing this trend manifest in examples like ex vivo microscopy, where dyes like acridine orange are used on excised tissue to create a fluorescence pattern that is converted to synthetic H&E. Without digitization, this would be an impossible feat. 

In addition, techniques like spectral imaging will be used to rediscover microscope details that are not seen by conventional H&E and light microscopy. Infrared evaluation of unstained slides looking at protein content, and even quantum microscopy, will be tools that make an appearance with digital capture.

The digital pathology and genomics markets will become increasingly entangled

By Imogen Fitt, Senior Market Analyst at Signify Research

There are several reasons why I see the digital pathology and genomics markets growing closer in 2025. Vendors are launching and now commercializing predictive algorithms designed to identify genomic biomarkers in digital pathology images. Pharmaceutical companies introduced digital companion diagnostics in 2024, and more are expected to come this year that will inevitably combine multiple modalities of data to derive additional insights. 

Digital pathology vendors are also evaluating partnerships with genomics vendors, as evidenced in public by some molecular diagnostics vendors now investing in digital pathology companies. And finally, demand for integration between digital pathology and genomics systems is starting to grow, with the digital pathology platform already incorporating genomic data in markets like Northern Europe.

This trend is important because combining multimodal data is crucial for the advancement of personalized medicine. Due to the massive amount of physiological data that’s available through the medium, genomics is seen as the pillar of precision medicine, but pathology is quickly emerging as the next contender as it digitizes. Linking the two disciplines will not only improve the standard of clinical care but will also improve datasets available for research. Additionally, it has the potential benefit of offering improvements to laboratory operations through offering “pre-screening” for patients.

Digital pathology will deliver on its promise of accelerating reports for providers and patients

By Ben Freiberg, Principal Informatics Systems Lead at Genentech

I think the biggest impact digital pathology will have for pathology practices in 2025 is enabling them to provide pathology reports back to providers and patients in less time. While accelerated turnaround time has always been emphasized as an advantage of digital pathology, it has taken until now for there to be a critical mass of providers capable of signing out cases digitally to deliver on this promise.

There are a number of downstream impacts that can result, beyond helping patients receive treatment sooner. One is reducing patients' stress, which negatively impacts their general health and, when mitigated, only benefits long-term prognosis. Another is helping patients find and see disease area sub-specialists who require a specific diagnosis before treating them. Finally, providers can identify ongoing clinical trials that are relevant to the patient based on diagnosis as early as possible to increase the likelihood of enrollment and access to treatment.

A tighter connection between life sciences and diagnostics driven by precision medicine

By Nathan Buchbinder, Chief Strategy Officer at Proscia

The value propositions and key use cases for digital pathology adoption in the life sciences and diagnostics spaces have historically remained separate. I predict that in 2025, the growing focus on precision medicine in drug discovery and development will accelerate digital pathology adoption in diagnostic settings as it opens up new business and clinical opportunities for them. These diagnostic laboratories can generate real-world data that life sciences organizations can leverage, and digital laboratories can implement new image-based assays for a wide range of use cases, including clinical trial recruitment and diagnosis.

In opening up new business opportunities, accelerating adoption of diagnostic digital pathology will broaden laboratories’ economic decision-making paradigm to account for new revenue streams and downstream clinical value creation in addition to quality and efficiency gains. We’ve seen hints of this already with digital companions and predictive assays.

Widespread adoption of digital pathology to elevate the field

By Sajjad Malik, Medical Director of Digital Pathology at HNL Lab Medicine

Without hesitation, I believe broader adoption of digital pathology will be the most impactful change in anatomical pathology – both in 2025 and in the foreseeable future. It is a necessary stepping stone for incorporating AI programs that will not only increase efficiency but also may provide valuable information that cannot be gathered without them. From digital stains to applications that automate menial tasks to a virtual co-pilot that helps navigate through cases to make sure nothing is overlooked, the possibilities are very exciting. The AI gap is real, and I strongly encourage everyone practicing anatomical pathology to try their best to jump on board.

The impact will extend beyond the operational and clinical benefits. As we all know, there is a pathologist shortage, and pathology has always struggled to recruit future generations of doctors because it is a behind-the-scenes profession. I think digital pathology and AI will continue to bring the field into a different category, and this, in itself, will be a breakthrough.