Ask a pathology lab director why the lab hasn’t gone digital yet, and the answers tend to sound alike. The scanners cost too much. The lab just bought new equipment two years ago. The pathologists already like their viewer. Nobody wants to rip out a working system and gamble on a full cutover. And the thought of migrating years of existing images feels overwhelming.
Those concerns make sense. For a long time, digital pathology looked like an all-or-nothing project that demanded new hardware, new contracts, and a stressful go-live weekend. NovoPath built its approach to digital pathology around a different idea: labs should be able to go digital with what they already have, at whatever pace fits their operation.
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Keep the Scanners You Already Own
Hardware anxiety stops a lot of digital pathology projects before they start. Many labs have already invested in one or more whole slide scanners. Others run a mix of scanners from different manufacturers across different sites. A digital strategy that requires replacing that equipment rarely survives a budget meeting.
NovoPath does not require new hardware. Labs keep the scanners they already run, whether that means one scanner or many. The NovoPath LIS connects to that existing equipment and ties every scan back to its case through the slide barcode. Nothing about the transition depends on buying proprietary devices.
Use the Viewer Pathologists Already Know
Pathologists build habits around their tools, and the viewer sits at the center of their daily work. Forcing a new viewer on a pathology group can create resistance that slows adoption across the whole lab.
NovoPath connects to the viewer a laboratory already uses. Labs that prefer a single, integrated experience can also use the viewer built into NovoPath for reviewing images alongside the case. Either way, the pathologist sees the slide in the context of the right patient record, and the lab keeps the flexibility to choose the setup that fits its team.
Store Images Where It Makes Sense
Image storage raises its own set of questions. Some organizations want the scale and accessibility of the cloud. Others have policies, infrastructure, or existing investments that favor on-premises storage.
NovoPath supports both. Labs store images in the cloud or on-premises, and in either case the images stay tied to the case inside the LIS. Storage location becomes an infrastructure decision rather than a workflow problem.
Go Digital One Step at a Time
The biggest barrier to digital adoption often has nothing to do with technology. It comes from the fear of disrupting a lab that works. A full cutover puts every case, every pathologist, and every site on the line at once.
NovoPath removes that pressure with a phased approach. Cases that pathologists have already read can stay on the lab’s existing image system, while new cases run through NovoPath. From there, a lab can expand digital work at its own pace, in a few different ways:
- Start with a single site and expand once the workflow proves itself.
- Launch with one specialty, such as dermatopathology or GI, before adding others.
- Bring on one pathologist or a small group first, then grow from their experience.
That flexibility lets labs build confidence, refine their processes, and train staff gradually. It also keeps the lab running normally while the transition happens in the background.
Why Built-In Beats Bolted-On
Plenty of vendors offer ways to connect a scanner to an LIS. The difference with NovoPath comes from where the digital workflow lives. Instead of attaching a separate image management system to the LIS, NovoPath builds the digital pathology workflow into the LIS itself.
That design choice matters during a transition. When digital and glass cases share one worklist and one set of rules, a phased rollout does not create two parallel labs. Staff do not juggle separate queues for digital cases and glass cases. A case that includes some scanned slides and some glass slides still lives in one record, with one status and one owner.
It also protects patient safety from the first day. The slide barcode, scan file, and LIS case match automatically, so every image stays attached to the correct patient. NovoPath tracks every expected slide on a case, including recuts, levels, and stains, and confirms the case is complete before it reaches the pathologist.
Fewer Vendors, Less Complexity
A traditional digital pathology project often adds a new vendor to the lab’s roster. That means another contract to negotiate, another support team to call, and another set of updates to coordinate with IT. When an interface between two systems fails, the lab gets stuck in the middle.
With NovoPath, one partner delivers the LIS, the image workflow, the integrations, and the analytics. The lab deals with a single vendor that stays accountable for the entire workflow. For smaller labs without large IT teams, that simplicity can decide whether a digital project moves forward at all.
A Platform Built for Pathology
NovoPath was built specifically for pathology, not adapted from software designed for chemistry panels and high-volume routine testing. More than 300 laboratories use NovoPath to run anatomic, molecular, clinical, cytology, and veterinary pathology workflows from one cloud-native platform. As the first enterprise LIS to move to the cloud, NovoPath already gives labs the ability to work from anywhere. Bringing digital pathology into that same platform extends that flexibility to the slides themselves.
The Smart Way to Start
Digital pathology does not have to mean a massive capital project or a risky weekend cutover. Labs can keep their scanners, keep their viewer, choose where their images live, and move forward one site, specialty, or pathologist at a time.
NovoPath makes that path possible by building the digital workflow into the system that already runs the lab. The result gives laboratories a practical way to go digital without starting over.
Afiya Jafar
Afiya Jafar is a technology, AI and digital trends writer at Digital Tech Spot. She focuses on making technology topics easier to understand through clear, informative and reader-focused content covering artificial intelligence, software, applications, digital tools and emerging technologies.
Sameena Begum
Sameena Begum is a technology and digital content reviewer at Digital Tech Spot. She reviews selected articles with attention to clarity, organisation, consistency, factual presentation and overall reader usefulness.