Democratizing Artificial Intelligence in Anatomic Pathology

CONTEXT.—

Artificial intelligence is a transforming technology for anatomic pathology. Involvement within the workforce will foster support for algorithm development and implementation.

OBJECTIVE.—

To develop a supportive ecosystem that enables pathologists with variable expertise in artificial intelligence to create algorithms in a development environment with seamless transition to a production environment.

DESIGN.—

RESULTS.—

The development team considered internal development and vended solutions. Because of the extended timeline and resource requirements for internal development, a decision was made to use a vended solution. Vendor proposals were solicited and reviewed by pathologists, IT, and security groups. A vendor was selected and pipelines for development and production were established. Proposals for development were solicited from the pathology department. Eighty-four investigators were selected for the initial cohort, receiving training and access to dedicated subject matter experts. A total of 30 of 31 projects progressed through the model development process of annotating, training, and validation. Based on these projects, 15 abstracts were submitted to national meetings.

CONCLUSIONS.—

Democratizing artificial intelligence by creating an ecosystem to support pathologists with varying levels of expertise can break down entry barriers, reduce overall cost of algorithm development, improve algorithm quality, and enhance the speed of adoption.