Editors: Raymond D. Aller, MD & Dennis Winsten
Duke opens digital health innovation center
May 2025—Duke University has launched its Duke Center for Computational and Digital Health Innovation, which is intended to drive technological advances in the areas of wearable sensors, high-performance computing, and extended reality solutions.
“Our center provides a vibrant platform for innovation and collaboration, where researchers, clinicians, engineers, and industry partners work side-by-side to pioneer new solutions,” says an open letter from Amanda Randles, PhD, director of the center. Faculty support for the center comes from the Duke University School of Medicine, School of Nursing, Trinity College of Arts and Sciences, and Pratt School of Engineering.
The center too focuses on computational and digital health education, in the form of hands-on learning experiences, workshops, and in-person and virtual seminars. Short-term plans include adding technology roundtables.
“If you’re a clinician, we want to help you know the nuances of how to deploy AI and the pros and cons of using the tools,” explained Dr. Randles in a press announcement. Furthermore, “engineers need to understand real-world scenarios and where the technology could be applied.”
Gestalt and Aira Matrix announce agreement
Gestalt and Aira Matrix have entered a strategic partnership that brings together Aira Matrix’ AiraQC artificial intelligence solution for streamlining quality control processes and Gestalt’s PathFlow digital pathology platform.
“By incorporating the image quality control results from Aira Matrix into PathFlow’s workflow, we are equipping pathologists with crucial insights into the status and quality of the images in their virtual slide trays,” Lisa-Jean Clifford, chief operating officer and chief strategy officer for Gestalt, told CAP TODAY magazine.
Gestalt, 509-492-4912
FDA clears digital pathology solution from Epredia
Epredia has received FDA 510(k) clearance for its E1000 Dx digital pathology solution.
The system comprises a high-speed, automated, whole slide imaging digital scanner, medical-grade viewer, and image-management and viewer software. It offers dual-slide processing and algorithm-based sample detection that pinpoints the location of the sample to minimize scanning time. The solution creates high-resolution digital images of up to 1,500 tissue samples per day.
“It is the first FDA-cleared digital pathology solution with a quality control feature that automatically triggers an advanced focal map rescan, if needed, to ensure high image quality for review by the pathologist,” according to a press release from Epredia.
The E1000 Dx is interoperable with other vendors’ pathology lab equipment and software, allowing it to be integrated into a laboratory’s existing workflow.
Epredia, 800-522-7270
ARUP Laboratories and Pramana to digitize slides and develop algorithms
Salt Lake City-based ARUP Laboratories and Pramana are working together to digitize pathology slides and develop artificial intelligence-powered algorithms for improving the assessment of bone marrow biopsies.
“The AI model development process will be led by ARUP, drawing on its expert hematopathologists and annotation tools to train, refine, and validate the algorithms using real-world clinical cases and pathology slides obtained for this purpose,” according to an ARUP press release.
The algorithms will run on Pramana’s SpectralHT autonomous whole slide imaging scanners, which feature edge AI computing.
ARUP and Pramana will explore commercialization strategies for deploying and distributing the diagnostic algorithms.
Inpeco and Grifols collaborate
Inpeco has announced that it is bringing its FlexLab X open automation system to transfusion medicine laboratories via a partnership with Grifols, a provider of diagnostic instrumentation, reagents, and technical services for such laboratories.
Inpeco’s automation technology will dispatch sample tubes to Grifols analyzers and then route the samples to refrigerated storage. The automation system’s digital dashboards provide real-time insights into laboratory performance, and its modular and scalable architecture can be adapted to laboratories’ changing needs.
Grifols USA, 888-474-3657