EPL’s experience with and use of whole slide images dates to the early 2000s. Our digital imaging technicians are dedicated to capturing your slides as the best digital surrogates to meet your consultation, educational, digital peer review, or quantitative analysis* needs.
Our VA and NC locations provide high-throughput whole slide imaging services to our clients in the United States and globally. This service includes brightfield scans at 20X and 40X magnification to produce digital NDPI and SVS file types. We can also conduct scans of different focal planes along the z-axis to produce multi-layered images (i.e., z-stack) of cytologic and histologic slides, providing you with a more depth of field and cells to view.
Whole slide images reduce the time and effort spent searching for an optimal tissue area under the microscope. These images allow asynchronous collaboration and consultation near and far – removing the pain of finding a common availability for pathologists and other scientists to review ambiguous or difficult cases.
Whole slide images have utility beyond consultation and collaboration. Their use is growing in educational activities on the graduate and professional levels. These images are also being incorporated as illustrations in journal articles and textbooks. The incorporated images can be annotated easily and shared with multiple remote users.
When you select EPL for whole slide imaging services, you select dedicated digital imaging technicians seeking to provide the best images for each client. Each whole slide imaging project includes a quality control pre-check, where slide quality and possible defects are reviewed for each slide. Once slides pass our pre-check, they are provided unique names and tracked from start to finish in our scan process for any errors or issues. Once scans are completed, we review each scan for focus and color representation before releasing images for review and storage. Our technicians are also highly experienced in providing secure online or disk-based image transfer.
We look forward to working with you as our digital imaging service client. If you have any questions, contact us at info@epl-inc.com or our Imaging and Whole Slide Scanning page here.
*Please note that our WSI systems are not yet validated as suggested by the FDA in the draft titled “Use of Whole Slide Imaging in Nonclinical Toxicology Studies: Questions and Answers.”