I began my career as a pathologist at the advent of my department’s digital roll out and am, for want of a better term, bilingual. I am comfortable reporting on both glass and screen and, while I do have a preferred language, I can float between the 2 with relative ease. But what are the advantages of training in a digital department and why is it worth departments investing in providing trainees with digital access, when they are a contractually temporary portion of the workforce?
 

As a department we asked our colleagues their views on digitisation both before and after its roll out. Our findings mirrored many of the well-established benefits, with rapid referral, improved laboratory workflow and the power to share all noted as strengths. Our questions also accounted for length of experience and we were able to distinguish variations between the views of the consultant and trainee bodies.

We saw a clear trend of trainees reporting more favourable views of digital pathology compared to their consultant counterparts. Why might this be? It’s easy to presume that those of us with less experience on glass find changing working habits less arduous, or is it perhaps because a larger proportion of trainees have experienced screens as part of our daily working life from an earlier stage?

I think to an extent all those elements play a role, but I also believe that training digitally doesn’t just benefit people because they perhaps find it more comfortable – I believe it genuinely enriches training. Who hasn’t sat at a multi-header with a broken arrow and struggled to describe the area they’re concerned about? Or attended a session where the number of spaces at a multiheader was limited?

It’s in the facilitation of equal training opportunities that digital pathology excels; it’s the freedom to invite as many trainees as possible onto a call to show an interesting case, or the beauty of being able to ask, “what’s that?” and pinpoint exactly where you mean. Haven’t seen an eosinophilic solid and cystic renal cell carcinoma before? No problem – the digital archive has a case that can be in front of you in moments. Fundamentally, it’s the ability to increase and extend training opportunities in a more equitable way.

Moreover, happy trainees may not be the only outcome. We posed a hypothetical question to those surveyed about how they would feel about returning to exclusive glass reporting. Strikingly 2 trainees commented that they would not be keen to join a department without digital pathology. This is a crucial consideration. The College’s Histopathology workforce survey presented data specifying concerns around increased workload, job vacancies and an aging histopathology workforce.

With these ongoing challenges in mind, the College has noted a need for digital pathology investment to ensure staff can work more efficiently and flexibly. Could the offer of digital training not only entice trainees to an area but also encourage them to stay into their consultant careers?
I cannot speak for others but, as I approach CCT, I know that training in a digital centre has provided me with more training opportunities and resources than I could ever have hoped for and I feel all the better prepared for it.

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