Iron Mountain Digital Pathology solutions

Delivering a secure physical-to-digital chain of custody

A pivotal moment of opportunity.

Digital pathology creates a vibrant, image-driven ecosystem where pathologists can acquire, manage, and interpret information from Whole Slide Images (WSI), using the information to understand medical events, train students, and contribute to research.

What if you could?

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Access digital images quickly and minimize physical handling of slides
cloud
Enable effective digital image sharing across your organization, students, and for grand rounds
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Securely and cost-effectively manage and scale your digital image library

Hospitals, laboratories, and research facilities can revolutionize possibilities with end-to-end digital pathology capabilities.

pathology end-to-end capabilities

There's a clear benefit here to working with digital slides and having immediate access to archived slides without having to wait.1

Healthcare Pathologist1”Digital pathology messaging research.” Conducted by Quadrant Strategies. Sponsored by Iron Mountain, September 2022.

Digital Pathology solution capabilities

Iron Mountain crafted a holistic, end-to-end platform of capabilities, complete with partner plugins, to fully enable digital pathology for research and educational settings.

We archive physical pathology assets, including blocks and glass slides, digitize them in our IRM facilities, manage and retrieve Whole Slide Images (WSIs) using IRM-built software, enable the interpretation of WSIs with an integrated viewer within the IRM infrastructure, and store WSIs in Iron Mountain’s digital pathology storage solution, all while maintaining a robust chain of custody.

Iron Mountain Digital Pathology solution is built on Iron Mountain InSight® Digital Experience Platform (DXP), a scalable software as a service solution that strengthens the data and information management capabilities lacking or missing in your existing pathology ecosystem via pre-built connectors, workflows, metadata, storage management, and future AI integrations.

Digitization

  • Scanner-agnostic slide digitization-on demand, retrospective archival, or prospective day-forward
  • Proprietary chain of custody tool tracking physical to digital WSI conversion
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Storage

  • Multi-cloud digital storage options
  • Iron Cloud tiered digital cloud storage
  • Multiple digital file format support
  • Physical slide and block storage*
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Data management

  • Proprietary data transfer tool
  • Whole Slide Image data enrichment
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Services

  • Integrated pathology viewer
  • Proprietary lightweight Image Management System (IMS)
  • Positioned for AI/ML metadata extraction and knowledge graphs
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Research

  • Empower institutions to share their archival pathology images for biomedical research
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Education

  • Use immersive learning and training to advance pathology educators, residents, and pathologists
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*Storage availability and requirements vary by country. Contact your local Iron Mountain representative for more information.

Why choose Iron Mountain Digital Pathology

Iron Mountain delivers a holistic secure service that spans the entire physical-to-digital pathology lifecycle.

Leverage extensive in-facility digitization capabilities along with traditional pathology slide‐storage - we manage more than one billion slides and blocks in over 150 temperature‐monitored facilities meeting the 2021 US CAP requirements.

Iron Mountain is the global leader for storage and information management services. Trusted by more than 225,000 organizations—including almost all of the Fortune 1000—we store and protect billions of valued assets.

Our capabilities include: mountain ranges

Transforming physical to digital

Many organizations attempting to digitize their pathology slides in-house find that their efforts fall short—digitization is not a core competency; it generally takes longer, costs more, and lowers overall efficiency.

Experienced Whole Slide Image digitization provider

We deliver a holistic service that spans the entire physical-to-digital pathology slide lifecycle. We digitize your physical glass slides within our more than 150 temperature-monitored pathology storage facilities that meet the 2021 US College of American Pathology (CAP) requirements. By creating Whole Slide Images (WSIs), we unlock the information on the slides, empowering your organizations with ready access to data.

Free up staff time and storage space, and position yourself for an AI future

  • Leverage our extensive in-facility digitization services where your slides stay within the Iron Mountain storage facilities, protecting fragile slides from transportation and handling damage.
  • Improve the efficiency of your overburdened staff and refocus their time on higher-value tasks.
  • Digitize your pathology slides, turning them into digitally indexed and easy-to-find WSIs that support collaboration and feed your next-generation AI business initiatives.

Digital Pathology solutions

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On Demand

Reduce the time to access slide images and collaborate. When a request is made through the web portal to view slides already in Iron Mountain storage, the slides are retrieved, prepared, digitized, and refiled. With On Demand the time to receive the digital image can be decreased from an average of 8 days down to 24 hours.
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digitize 1

Archival

Unlock large sets of archival images used to facilitate research, train AI models or be monetized via marketplaces. For researchers wanting to create a rich in-house digital medical image archive, large slide sets in storage are scanned and uploaded to the cloud. Images can be viewed by humans, analyzed digitally, or used to train machine learning algorithms.
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What’s slowing down access to your information?

You are challenged to manage an ever‐growing volume of slides and blocks while maintaining inventory integrity and timely access to physical slides and Whole Slide Images (WSIs).

As organizations are asked to do more with less and the volume of specimens continues to grow, getting quick access to the slides and WSIs for review and research, facilitating efficient collaboration, and managing the proper storage and movement of these assets becomes an ever-increasing burden.

Digital Pathology storage solution

Digital storage

Choose from multi-cloud digital storage options supporting multiple digital file formats

  • Iron Mountain Iron Cloud incorporates tiered digital storage.*
  • We work with cloud storage providers available in your region
  • Explore on-premise and private cloud storage

*Storage availability and requirements vary by country

Digital storage

Pathology labs must maintain security to guard protected health information (PHI) to comply with regulations. Digital pathology professionals experienced in asset preservation and compliance handle cost-effective image storage and management across scalable cloud storage.


Digitized images also enable organizations to participate in asset marketplaces, where images are collected, anonymized, and marketed for sale to enable and support in-house research.

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Physical storage

Utilize our pathology slide storage

  • We manage more than 1 billion slides and blocks in more than 150 temperature-monitored facilities
  • We adhere to the 2021 US College of American Pathology requirements*
  • We provide services spanning the entire physical-to-digital pathology lifecycle

* Storage availability and requirements vary by country.

Physical storage

The need for physical storage space is growing, but storage space is at a premium, particularly in the facility itself or in high-value real estate areas where many facilities are located. In addition, temperature-monitored storage is needed for slides and blocks (tissue samples), which are the core elements of pathology.

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Moving and controlling data

Managing large whole slide image (WSI) datasets and maintaining the metadata that describes them is challenging, requiring a knowledgeable and experienced provider.

Managing Whole Slide Image data

We store and manage your large Whole Slide Images (WSIs) efficiently and securely while leveraging metadata to make finding and retrieving them easy. The WSI's data enrichment helps pathologists quickly find, view, group, share, and analyze the images for research or education purposes.

Our capabilities include:

Proprietary data transfer tool

Our robust data agent moves and manages the WSI data, providing you with access to it when you need it.

WSI data enrichment

We provide comprehensive metadata capture and enrichment for WSIs. Whether you provide a data file to pair with the WSI or only the labeling guidelines, we create the metadata, including your descriptions. Organized data empowers your analysis and retrieval while maintaining consistency, accuracy, and data integrity.

An end-to-end digital pathology services provider

Our Digital Pathology solution has many capabilities, allowing you to personalize it to your needs. Components include a secure web portal, slide digitization, digital viewing, whole slide image (WSI) management, and physical and digital storage.

Be ready for the future

We’ll position you for the future as Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML) metadata extraction and knowledge graphs are available. Using the WSI metadata, the information can provide new insights supporting better decision-making. The WSIs can be viewed by humans, analyzed digitally, or used to train machine learning algorithms bolstering research or monetization via marketplaces.

Reap the advantages of a digital solution that increases your efficiency and effectiveness by partnering with us. As a capable and reputable service provider, we empower you with our Digital Pathology solution capabilities. Utilize our services rather than attempting to handle everything in-house and on-premises.

Our capabilities include:

Integrated pathology viewer

You have choices - our open platform supports integration with different viewers. Get the WSIs when needed, enabling authorized users to search, annotate, and share images, facilitating collaboration from anywhere with an internet connection.

Proprietary lightweight Image Management System (IMS)

You can filter, search, query, and group the WSI repository, giving you control over managing and turning your data into useful information.

Unlock faster pathology research

Iron Mountain Digital Pathology solutions have many research use case applications, such as:

  • Cohort creation
  • AI model training and validation
  • Asset monetization

Lead your research organization toward achieving the following benefits:

Enhanced research accuracy and consistency

Real-time analysis identifies patterns and correlations

Increased research efficiency

Real-time feedback on model evaluation for faster iterations and collaboration

Improved profitability

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Case Study: Technology startup uses artificial intelligence (AI) model training

A profit-driven technology startup needed help building cohorts of de-identified patient data to sell to biotech firms for AI model training. The startup required retrospective cohort digitization of thousands of slides, with plans to expand to 1.5 million slides. This volume was needed to deliver robust data sets for AI diagnostics and research.

Iron Mountain Digital Pathology solution provided large-scale retrospective/archival scanning services. Physical slides were converted into digital images suitable for aggregation and analysis.

Outcomes included:

  • Handled massive data volumes by scanning thousands of slides and preparing for the expansion to 1.5 million slides
  • Enabled AI training by supplying biotech firms with high-quality, de-identified data sets
  • Facilitated innovation through the development and training of advanced AI models for research

Innovate in education

Utilize Iron Mountain Digital Pathology solutions in your educational settings, such as the following use cases:

  • Student projects
  • Webinars
  • Grand rounds

Our Digital Pathology solution offers:

Enhanced visualization

Interactive and remote learning

Access to diverse cases (not geography or facility dependent)

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Case Study: Cancer Center with National Institute of Health (NIH) funding

A cancer center was at risk of losing NIH funding due to falling behind on its in-house scanning project. The inability to keep up with the volume of slides needing scanning threatened research, training, and funding.

Iron Mountain took on the overflow slide scanning responsibilities, ensuring that all necessary slides were quickly digitized, promoting ease of access and use.

Outcomes include:

  • NIH funding was secured by helping the center meet its project deadlines
  • Provided critical operational support during a period of high demand
  • Enabled the center to continue its important cancer research and education without interruption

Additional resources

AI in digital pathology: facilitating research and monetizing assets

The fast pace of artificial intelligence (AI) is galvanizing the field of pathology, building on the digital pathology paradigm shift. Automated workflows, timely collaboration, and the inclusion of AI tools are becoming standard practice. What does this mean for pathology? Quite a bit in the way of advancing research and deriving more value from pathology assets.

How will your organization safeguard its digital pathology data?

The options for storing, safeguarding, and managing digital pathology data are complex. Healthcare organizations can follow this investigation to understand various approaches, critical storage strategies, and key considerations.

Debating digital pathology? Consider the risk of not doing it

While lab managers and healthcare providers examine digital pathology solutions, they will of course prioritize patient welfare. But what happens when innovation turns out to be the more ethical option?

Reduce risk with a strategic approach to digital pathology governance

In the emerging field of digital pathology, labs and other healthcare organizations can take these steps towards compliance with shifting regulations.

Chain of custody in the digital pathology revolution

As more organizations convert pathology slides to digital images, they can look to other industries for proven methods of handling vulnerable assets.

Protecting patient data in the age of digital pathology

As digital pathology opens greater opportunities for professional collaboration, research, and education, the pivotal question is: How can organizations effectively meet the data security requirements while still realizing the value of digital transformation?

Scalable Iron Cloud storage for digital pathology slide images

High-resolution whole slide images could
exceed 1GB each, with labs potentially producing thousands of slides per day. This
reality has healthcare organizations searching for storage strategies to make their
digital pathology programs affordable and resilient.

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