ACSR and Proscia partnership spearheads rapid equitable distribution of real-world digital pathology data to drive HIV and cancer research

Proscia enterprise digital pathology platform enables the AIDS and Cancer Specimen Resource to provide near real-time access to digital real-world pathology data to investigators around the world.

Proscia^®, a leading provider of digital and computational pathology solutions, has announced its AI-based enterprise digital pathology platform Concentriq^® for Research has been chosen by the AIDS and Cancer Specimen Resource (ACSR), a National Institutes of Health-funded biorepository of specimens collected since 1994 from persons living with HIV (PLWH). Through the ACSR and Proscia partnership, investigators around the world can now access near real-time digital pathology real-world data (RWD) provided by ACSR to drive scientific exploration and discovery in cancer in PLWH.

“We are fortunate to have a growing library of rare and valuable biospecimens that have contributed to the fight against cancer in PLWH,” said Paige Bracci, UCSF Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, and Director of the ACSR’s Informatics program. “Concentriq for Research has enabled us to quickly realize the benefits of digital pathology and get this RWD in the hands of more researchers faster. Proscia’s platform is not only making a difference for the scientific community but also for the patients impacted by its work.”

The advent of digital pathology – involving conversion of images from glass slides under a microscope into high-resolution digital images – has brought about revolutionary transformations in the field, including AI-assisted image analysis and pattern recognition; computer-aided diagnosis; as well as easier storage, retrieval, and facilitated sharing/remote access.

Software company Proscia has a mission to accelerate the shift to digital pathology, driving the transformation with its enterprise pathology platform Concentriq and powerful AI applications. They are working towards pathology becoming a RWD-driven discipline, unlocking new real-world insights that accelerate R&D, improve patient outcomes, and fulfil the promise of precision care.

Since selecting Proscia’s Concentriq for Research, the ACSR has reduced the time it takes to provide investigators with real-world pathology data from days to hours. It enables ACSR to transcend geographical barriers and simultaneously share the same datasets to multiple research teams, to power scientific advancements, and provides investigators robust annotation and analysis tools for their work. The approach also allows for conservation and increased sustainability of ACSR’s rare and exhaustible tissue specimens.

The ACSR and Proscia partnership has led to the availability of a rare melanoma tissue repository on Concentriq for Research. A corresponding tissue microarray of these tumor tissues will be available in early 2024.

“We are proud to count the ACSR among the members of the Concentriq community,” said David West, Proscia’s CEO. “It enables breakthrough research with its pathology data and has meaningfully improved access to this critical source of insight with our platform. We look forward to seeing the impact that the ACSR continues to make with enterprise digital pathology.”