Curious about how technology aids in organ donation? Telepathology has been helping make organ donations safer.
Telepathology is revolutionizing the healthcare field.
One of the most notable changes is how it’s making the organ donation process safer. Currently, twenty people die on average while waiting for an organ transplant. Someone is added to the national transplant waiting list every ten minutes.
Telepathology for organ donation can help save lives by reducing the number of people who die each day waiting for an organ.
Read on to find out more.
Remote Evaluation
Telepathology literally means to practice pathology from a distance. That makes remote evaluation one of the most obvious benefits of the practice.
How does this help with organ donation?
Organ Procurement Organizations (OPOs) rely on pathologists to give their expert opinion about how healthy the organs are and which organs would be the best match for people waiting for a donation. Without telepathology, they have to rely on pathologists in the area.
Organ donation telepathology means that both the pathologist and the donor organ can be located anywhere. This lets OPOs widely expand their donor base, which increases the chance of someone receiving an organ right when they need it.
Collaborative Decisions
This practice is also great for collaborative decisions. It’s not uncommon for medical professionals to ask for second opinions from colleagues before making an official diagnosis or decision.
The nature of traditional pathology can sometimes make this difficult. Slides can only be viewed by so many people at once.
With telepathology, many pathologists can view the slides together. If it’s a complicated decision, a diagnostic team can include pathologists from different backgrounds and even different hospitals.
Being able to bring all of that knowledge together is important.
Improves Accuracy
Of course, with anything involving people, there’s always a chance for human error. Luckily, with telepathology, technology helps to either reduce or remove that chance.
Because pathologists can look at a virtual image instead of a slide, it’s much easier for them to see the full picture. If necessary, they can also compare multiple slides at once. Both help them to make a better decision.
The addition of software also helps to cut down any mistakes.
Get Results Faster
Finally, telepathology helps both hospitals and organ recipients get results much faster.
Speed is an important part of the organ donation process, especially since you never know when a viable organ is going to become available. If there isn’t a hospital pathologist on call or it’s a weekend or holiday, hospitals and patients can lose a lot of precious time.
Allowing for remote evaluation means that hospitals have 24/7 access to pathologists no matter where they are — which is especially important for hospitals in rural areas. The pathologists can view the slides from an approved computer and send in their decisions without ever setting foot in the hospital.
Learn More About Telepathology
Telepathology is relatively new to the medical field, but it’s growing quickly. It’s a safe bet that it won’t just help make organ donations safer. Telepathology has the potential to revolutionize medicine.
Interested in learning more about how telepathology can be used? Contact us today!
