In this interview, we discuss the advancements and future of digital pathology with Jean-François Pomerol, CEO of Tribun Health. Learn about the current adoption rates, challenges in articulating value propositions, the role of AI in clinical diagnostics, and the anticipated growth in this innovative field. Discover how digital technology is transforming the practice of pathology and improving patient outcomes.

Interview Transcript

[00:00:00] Christopher O’Donnell, Head of Content, HBI: We’re with Jean-François Pomerol, the CEO of Tribune Health. Jean Francois, thank you so much for joining us today.

[00:00:06] Jean-François Pomerol, CEO, Tribune Health: Thanks for inviting me.

[00:00:08] Christopher O’Donnell, Head of Content, HBI: More than welcome. So, digital pathology. What is digital pathology , and how is it deployed?

[00:00:15] Jean-François Pomerol, CEO, Tribune Health: Yeah, so pathology is a medical specialty in charge of doing the diagnosis of cancer.

diseases and mainly cancer. And when we talk about digital pathology, we say implementing digital technology and AI to replace the microscope and change the way the pathology practice is done.

[00:00:33] Christopher O’Donnell, Head of Content, HBI: So what’s the next big milestone in its development?

[00:00:36] Jean-François Pomerol, CEO, Tribune Health: So today this digital pathology technology has been adopted by 15 percent of the market.

So the next big thing is going towards full adoption and we are poised for growth in, in the coming years, in the near future, we do expect to be above 50 percent adoption. So I think that’s the next milestone, convincing early adopters.

[00:00:57] Christopher O’Donnell, Head of Content, HBI: And how do you scale that [00:01:00] adoption?

[00:01:00] Jean-François Pomerol, CEO, Tribune Health: We we provide a comprehensive solution, including a workflow orchestration, diagnostic viewer, AI capabilities, and this bring increased value both for the pathology and for the practice in the lab, but also for the patient.

So that’s a rational behind adoption. And I think that’s how the market is evolving. We create, we bring value and for each project, we define the proper value proposition. Proposition. So customer can adopt

[00:01:31] Christopher O’Donnell, Head of Content, HBI: and what sort of challenges are you finding? For example, articulating the value proposition.

Do you ever find that difficult to helping partners to understand the value in utility? Or is that aspect quite simple? What sort of things might slow down the adoption of these technologies?

[00:01:48] Jean-François Pomerol, CEO, Tribune Health: It has been a long journey. We have been talking about digital pathology for almost 10 years. But I think there’s no question anymore.

But, the main challenge, I would say, is [00:02:00] probably time. Because we when you want to change a medical practice, You have to invest in new technology. You have to rethink about your process. You have to drive change, and all of that takes time. So I think that’s the main challenge. If I want to add another challenge, I would say the role of AI in the clinical diagnostic and how we will be reimbursed for AI is probably another big challenge that we have today.

But I don’t see this challenging being. a significant barrier. So the market is ready for adoption. Pathologists are asking for that. And the value is now far beyond the traditional way of doing the diagnosis. So everything is in place for rapid growth now.

[00:02:50] Christopher O’Donnell, Head of Content, HBI: That’s very interesting to hear. And certainly one of the themes of this conference from speaking to so many delegates so far has seemed to be this increasing awareness of the value [00:03:00] of AI and articulating that.

Digital and AI. Yeah, exactly. Yeah and data, of course thank you so much for your time today, and I look forward to seeing you at the rest of the conference Thanks. Thank you very much