Understanding Design for Automated Image Analysis in Digital Pathology

Digital pathology is an emerging healthcare field taking advantage of technology that allows digitization of microscopy images. Such digitization enables the use of automated digital image analysis techniques, which could be beneficial for the diagnostic review and prognosis of a variety of conditions. As yet, human-computer interaction (HCI) issues in this field, which is mostly based on visual analysis, have not been systematically explored. Based on reflecting on the process of designing and deploying systems for digital pathology, we propose a new understanding to design automated tools for such environments. We used meeting minutes, design briefs, interviews, personal notes and other artifacts to conduct a thematic analysis. This enabled us to establish four design considerations for introducing digital image analysis to routine pathology that concern level of detail, verification, communication and transparency.