Managing the cost of storage in digital pathology imaging

From microscopes to servers: the financial shift in digital pathology

Traditionally, pathology departments have budgeted for salaries, real estate, lab equipment, consumables, and microscopes. While digital pathology eliminates some of these costs, it introduces new ones—primarily related to IT infrastructure. The initial transition, with a complete digital workflow, undoubtedly necessitates increased funding.

Fortunately, the critical role pathology plays in cancer care and other clinical pathways has made it possible to secure these initial investments. However, long-term financial sustainability demands more than just one-off funding boosts. Beyond the initial investment in scanners to digitize slides, ongoing expenses include image management systems (IMS) (purchased or subscriptions), ever-increasing storage costs, and the integration of AI applications—a rapidly evolving field with its own financial considerations.

To keep or not to keep? Balancing cost with medical necessity

The cost of storage aggregates over time, depending both on the size of the images and on storage time. Some labs have taken the simple path and discarded all images after a short period of time, keeping the cost of storage steady with only organic annual volume growth. Other labs have decided to store images for a longer time, motivated by medical necessity, legal and regulatory requirements, research, and AI development.

There are even cases where labs are legally obligated to retain diagnostic images for up to 20 years. This extended storage requirement translates to a steadily escalating cost burden. The impact is undeniable—the longer these images are stored, the more storage space is needed, and the greater the financial strain becomes.

This means that the cost of storage is the single most expensive item in the profit and loss calculation of the business case for digital pathology.

Optimizing storage costs: a three-tiered solution for digital pathology

To provide greater control over the cost of storage, Sectra is introducing a three-tiered storage solution, available for Sectra Digital Pathology Solution. To maximize the advantages of this feature, Sectra configures the system to retain images on the more expensive image cache for a short period, typically a few weeks.

Thereafter, the images are automatically moved to archive areas with cost-efficient storage. And, for example, 12 months later, the images are finally moved to an offline tier with the lowest storage cost per image. This final tier allows for easy retrieval with a simple click whenever the images are needed for medical history, legal purposes, research, teaching, or AI development.

Implementing tiered storage will reduce the cost per TB/month to a fraction of the cost of only using the most costly tier. And both, the functionality and capacity of the solution are retained: Tier 1 offers high-speed access, Tier 2 provides adequate speed, and Tier 3 prioritizes cost-efficiency while still fulfilling the user’s retrieval needs.

This is the biggest change to the business case for digital pathology since the introduction of scanner-independent IMS. Sectra Digital Pathology saves time due to its efficient workflow orchestration, easy-to-use functionality, and three-tiered storage solution. Images are simply accessed directly from the pathologist’s user interface, providing easy-to-use and accessible functionality for routine diagnostics.

The offline storage technology has been around as standalone components for some time, but is now fully integrated into Sectra’s solution and available through the Sectra One Cloud subscription offering.

Choosing a solution that, in addition to offering the best user support, also provides tiered storage will have a very positive effect on the cost side of the business case. Looking ahead, Sectra expects that hospitals in more countries will transition to a complete digital workflow in the years to come.

Will you be one of them?