Bergonié Institute joins Terascop

Terascop and Bergonié Institute, cancer center in Nouvelle Aquitaine region (France), signed a partnership agreement in September 2018. Bergonié Institute becomes the first center to integrate the network of excellence created by Terascop.

The aim of the partnership is to enable health professionals (pathologists, clinicians, oncologists ...) from around the world to obtain a pathology second opinion online from the best experts of the specialty.

The need for a second opinion may arise when the initial diagnosis is uncertain or when the treatment involved has serious consequences for the patient.

More specifically when it comes to: complex lesion with difficult diagnosis; tumor with uncertain nosological classification or with the evaluation of the histological grade presents problems of reproducibility; tumor requiring specific techniques not available locally (special stains, immunohistochemistry, molecular tests); benign vs malignant border lesion; rare tumor (especially in children) or too limited sample size.

Terascop has developed an innovative IT platform to apply online for a second opinion assigned to the best French expert of the specialty.

If the doctor requesting for a second opinion owns a slide scanner, the platform allows a 100% digital expertise through its whole slide image viewer. The benefit of this option is short delay in getting the second opinion and quick answer from the expert to specific question the health professional may have. For example, to confirm the grade of dysplasia (predictive evolution of a precancerous lesion) conditioning the therapeutic strategy to adopt for the patient (simple follow-up or medical act).

When remote diagnosis is not possible due to lack of a slide scanner or the necessity to perform ancillary tests unavailable locally, Terascop conveys the histological material (paraffin embedded block and microscopic slides) from the original laboratory to the expert. Return is also guaranteed.

Another Innovation is about the quality of the network of excellence which does not rely on the reputation of medical institutions but on the pathologist's expertise. Stringent criteria apply to the expert recruitment such as the involvement in the specialty (training, participation in congresses ...), the contribution to WHO classifications, the number of publications, recommendations by peers or human and technical means available at the medical center.

Bergonié Institute as a center of excellence will therefore contributes to the second opinion activity with its state-of-the-art equipment and its experts Dr. JM Coindre and Dr. G Mac Grogan respectively for the expertise of the pathology of the soft and mammary tissues.

This combination of technology and expertise provides a fast and reliable solution to healthcare professionals for optimal care of their patients.