I. Pathology: The “Gold Standard” for Cancer Diagnosis and Current Challenges

Pathologists, known as “the doctor’s doctor,” do not typically interact with patients directly. Instead, they provide pathological diagnosis reports by analyzing patient tissue samples and pathology slides. This report is the ultimate and most reliable basis for clinicians to formulate treatment plans (e.g., surgery, chemotherapy, or targeted therapy).

Academician Zhong Nanshan of the Chinese Academy of Engineering emphasized, “The level of clinical pathology is an important indicator to measure the quality of national medical care.”

1. Case Focus: How Accurate Pathological Diagnosis Saves Lives

The personal experiences of Professor Wang Chaofu, Director of the Pathology Department at Ruijin Hospital, deeply illustrate the value of precise pathology diagnosis:

• Discovery of a New Renal Cancer Type: In 2010, Professor Wang suspected a renal tumor was not benign, despite the initial diagnosis. It was later confirmed as a new type of renal cell carcinoma, with only 17 cases reported globally at the time.
• Preventing Amputation: In 2016, a young woman diagnosed with bone cancer and facing amputation had her diagnosis corrected to myositis ossificans (a benign lesion) after consultation with Professor Wang, saving her leg.

2. Resource Shortage and Workflow Bottlenecks

Despite the critical nature of their work, pathology departments in China face significant hurdles:

• Talent Gap: With less than 20,000 registered pathologists, there is a shortage of 140,000.
• Uneven Distribution: Top pathology experts are concentrated in a few elite hospitals, leaving grassroots hospitals with weak diagnostic capabilities.
• Traditional Slide Limitations: Glass slides are difficult to store long-term (prone to fading, damage, and loss), and inefficient information management (e.g., handwritten labels) limits sample tracking and research.

Ruijin Hospital’s Pathology Department generates over a million slides annually. This massive workload urgently requires a digitalization solution to “reduce the burden” and boost efficiency.

II. The Digital Transformation: The Promise of Digital Pathology and AI Medicine

The introduction of Digital Pathology Systems offers a targeted solution to the pain points of traditional pathology. The system converts physical slides into Digital Slides (Whole Slide Imaging, WSI) through scanning, bringing revolutionary advantages:

Advantage	Problem Solved
Data Preservation	Precious pathology data can be preserved permanently, solving the issues of difficult storage and retrieval of glass slides.
Remote Consultation	Doctors can view digital slides anytime, anywhere, at different magnifications. Easy sharing facilitates telemedicine and cross-regional consultation.
Education & Training	Supports online slide reading webinars and live teaching, which is crucial for training more pathology talent.
AI Enablement	Digital slides are the foundation for AI pathology analysis, helping doctors enhance reading efficiency and diagnostic accuracy.

III. 🚀 1000 Slides/Second Access: High-Performance Storage Fuels Digital Pathology

While Digital Pathology is highly beneficial, it presents challenges in massive data storage and high-performance access. A single digital slide can be the size of an HD movie, with hospitals generating hundreds to tens of thousands daily. Traditional IT infrastructure struggles with:

• High access delays, system freezes, and “mosaics” that severely affect reading speed and accuracy.
• Extremely high requirements for long-term storage, computer room space, and backup solutions.
• Concerns over data confidentiality, sharing, and external hacker attacks.

Huawei OceanStor Pacific: A Breakthrough Solution at Ruijin Hospital

To overcome these digital pathology data challenges, Ruijin Hospital’s Pathology Department partnered with Huawei Data Storage, leveraging the Huawei OceanStor Pacific distributed storage solution to achieve a qualitative leap in performance:

1. Ultra-Fast Access: Huawei distributed storage enables the simultaneous access of 1,000 slides in one second, surpassing traditional storage performance by over 80 times. This ensures real-time, smooth slide viewing for clinical, research, and teaching staff.
2. Data Reduction and Space Efficiency: Huawei’s unique secondary compression algorithm for digital pathology achieves a compression ratio of over 30%. Combined with the high-density hardware design of OceanStor Pacific, the hospital saved 73% of computer room space, significantly reducing long-term storage costs.

Conclusion: The integration of medicine and technology, particularly the application of Digital Pathology and AI in the pathology department, is the crucial path to addressing uneven medical resources and improving the overall quality of national healthcare. By securing the fast and safe flow of massive pathology data through high-performance storage technology, the expertise of pathology specialists can be extended to benefit a far greater number of patients.