Scientific and Regulatory Policy Committee Brief Communication: 2019 Survey on Use of Digital Histopathology Systems in Nonclinical Toxicology Studies

Histopathologic evaluation and peer review using digital whole-slide images (WSIs) is a relatively new medium for assessing nonclinical toxicology studies in Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) environments. To better understand the present and future use of digital pathology in nonclinical toxicology studies, the Society of Toxicologic Pathology (STP) formed a working group to survey STP members with the goal of creating recommendations for implementation. The survey was administered in December 2019, immediately before the COVID-19 pandemic, and the results suggested that the use of digital histopathology for routine GLP histopathology assessment was not widespread. Subsequently, in follow-up correspondence during the pandemic, many responding institutions either began investigating or adopting digital WSI systems to reduce employee exposure to COVID-19. Therefore, the working group presents the survey results as a pre-pandemic baseline data set. Recommendations for use of WSI systems in GLP environments will be the subject of a separate publication.

Automated summary

This article presents the results of a survey on the use of digital pathology in nonclinical toxicology studies before the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey showed that digital histopathology was not widely used for routine GLP histopathology assessment. However, many institutions started investigating or adopting digital WSI systems during the pandemic to reduce employee exposure to COVID-19.