Laboratory Computer Performance in a Digital Pathology Environment: Outcomes from a Single Institution

Laboratory Computer Performance in a Digital Pathology Environment: Outcomes from a Single Institution

Background: In an effort to provide improved user experience and system reliability at a moderate cost, our department embarked on targeted upgrades of a total of 87 computers over a period of 3 years. Upgrades came in three forms: (i) replacement of the computer with newer architecture, (ii) replac...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of pathology informatics Vol. 9; no. 1; p. 44
Main Authors: Zarella, Mark D., Feldscher, Adam
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: United States Elsevier Inc 01-01-2018
Wolters Kluwer India Pvt. Ltd
Medknow Publications & Media Pvt. Ltd
Medknow Publications & Media Pvt Ltd
Elsevier
Subjects:
Computer architecture
Computers
Data storage
Digital computers
Image analysis
ImageScope
Laboratories
Measurement methods
Operating systems
Original
Pathology
QuPath
Software
Solid state devices
solid-state drive
System reliability
User experience
virtual slides
Windows system image
solid-state drive
Windows system image
ImageScope
virtual slides
QuPath
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Summary:Background: In an effort to provide improved user experience and system reliability at a moderate cost, our department embarked on targeted upgrades of a total of 87 computers over a period of 3 years. Upgrades came in three forms: (i) replacement of the computer with newer architecture, (ii) replacement of the computer’s hard drive with a solid-state drive (SSD), or (iii) replacement of the computer with newer architecture and a SSD. Methods: We measured the impact of each form of upgrade on a set of pathology-relevant tasks that fell into three categories: standard use, whole-slide navigation, and whole-slide analysis. We used time to completion of a task as the primary variable of interest. Results: We found that for most tasks, the SSD upgrade had a greater impact than the upgrade in architecture. This effect was especially prominent for whole-slide viewing, likely due to the way in which most whole-slide viewers cached image tiles. However, other tasks, such as whole-slide image analysis, often relied less on disk input or output and were instead more sensitive to the computer architecture. Conclusions: Based on our experience, we suggest that SSD upgrades are viewed in some settings as a viable alternative to complete computer replacement and recommend that computer replacements in a digital pathology setting are accompanied by an upgrade to SSDs.
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ISSN:2153-3539
2229-5089
2153-3539
DOI:10.4103/jpi.jpi_47_18