Webinars

_{Suren Avunjian}: Hope everyone is having a good startof the week. And this is the start of a new webinar series. We're looking forward to putting together for everyone inthe industry. We'll have two types, one that discusses how technology can helpimprove the overall workloads, workflow, the industry, and then other ones thatare very industry specific.

_{Suren Avunjian}: We will be inviting industry guests tocover burning topics for the industry. So we're really excited to startbringing this series of webinars to you and also we'll have this recorded andwe'll share it with all the attendees.

_{Suren Avunjian}: Feel free to share it with yourcolleagues as well.

^{Michael Kalinowski}: Our hope, as Suren mentioned, is to makethis interactive. So hearing from you, hearing your opinion of what you see isvery important to us and for the group attending here.

_{Suren Avunjian}: Throughout the presentation, feel freeto submit some questions that you would like answered. We'll also have a pollthat'll capture some of the questions we wanted to get a better feel for, aswell as we'd love to get some topics that you would like us to cover in futurewebinars.

_{Suren Avunjian}: So with that, lets get started. We'lltry to keep these as brief as possible so that you can get on with your day.

^{Michael Kalinowski}: Yeah, we'll get to the meat of theagenda here sooner than later, so welcome good afternoon and Good morning,depending upon where you might be joining us.

^{Michael Kalinowski}: My name is Michael, and I am going toset the table here off before we get to the experts.

^{Michael Kalinowski}: Suren is CEO and co-founder of LigoLab Information Systems, and then Petros, our Client Success Director, is heavilyinvolved in implementations and has been with the company for 10-plus years.

^{Michael Kalinowski}: All right. So let's take a look at theagenda real quick. As Suren mentioned, we do have poll questions and we'd liketo hear from you during the course of this webinar. First we are going toestablish the problem although if you're in pathology, if you're in thelaboratory business, these problems shouldn't be a shock to you.

^{Michael Kalinowski}:We'll have Suren's remarks, a LIS software demonstration led by Petros, andthen a chance for an interactive Q&A with both Suren and Petros after the LIS softwaredemonstration.And we'll close it out with key takeaways that we hope you gain from attendingthis webinar, and of course share that with your colleagues after the fact.

^{Michael Kalinowski}: So let's start by addressing the problemof pathologist burnout and the lack of qualified medical technologists. Thoseare two serious interrelated issues that all pathology labs are facing daily.And so the first question is, how did we get here? Well, if you're apathologist, chances are you have felt burnout at some point during yourcareer.

^{Michael Kalinowski}: In fact, there's a really good chanceyou might be experiencing it today. That's according to a recent poll conductedby the American Society of Clinical Pathology. Pathologists remain, as we allknow, the unsung heroes of our healthcare industry. They play a prominent rolein diagnosing diseases and determining the best course of treatment while, inrelative terms, only accounting for a tiny portion of what's spent onhealthcare annually.

^{Michael Kalinowski}: Now, this important role is even moremagnified today as pathologists deal with work-related stress caused by severalfactors, and that includes rising caseloads, increasing supply costs, shrinkingbudgets, and a lack of qualified support staff and staff turnover. All this inaddition to the constant pressure that they feel to deliver accurate caseresults and short turnaround times.

^{Michael Kalinowski}: Simply stated, burnout can have severeconsequences for the pathologist, his or her practice, and the patients as itraises the likelihood of a mistake leading to an inaccurate diagnosis ortreatment.

^{Michael Kalinowski}: So what can be done to beat burnout andstaffing issues? Well, one primary way to relieve the stress on pathologistsand their practices is by automating routine tasks with the help of a modernlaboratory information system (LIS), one that can serve as the central hub forall laboratory information and increase lab throughput without the hiring ofadditional support staff.

^{Michael Kalinowski}: Modern LIS systems are rule-based. They enablepathologists and lab technologists to build simple to complex rules and actionsto replace inefficient and mistake prone human intervention with automationspecifically for the pathologist.

^{Michael Kalinowski}: This level of automation and userexperience allows for the entering of a result and the releasing of a casewithout a single mouse click, something that we will demonstrate to you in justa little bit. A modern LIS  is a valuabletool that pathology groups can leverage to automate routine tasks and lessenthe potential for burnout related job stress, and a lack of qualified supportpersonnel.

^{Michael Kalinowski}: During our upcoming LIS software demonstration,we'll show you how this modern lab information system can eliminate bothrepetitive and redundant steps and provide comprehensive LIS solutions enablingthe pathologist and the technologist to focus on what they do best, diagnosingdiseases and improving patient outcomes.

^{Michael Kalinowski}: So now with that, let's hear from Suren,co-founder and CEO of ligoLab Iinformation Systems to get his view on theseimportant issues and where pathology practices can turn for help.

_{Suren Avunjian}: Thank you very much Michael and forall the attendees. We're very excited to bring you this series of monthlywebinars to discuss how implementing modern technologies can help scale yourorganization efficiently and drive staff satisfaction to lower turnover rates.

_{Suren Avunjian}: With over a thousand job openings onthe market, only 500 are entering the workforce each year. Practicingpathologists are overburdened with case volumes, and the burnout rate is amongthe highest in the medical field. More than 35 percent of pathologists havereported burnout. By simplifying pathologists' daily work as much as possibleby adding automation to remove redundant steps and clicks that are performedhundreds of times a day, a modern LIS can significantly impact productivity andmore importantly, job satisfaction. So pathologist burnout is a multifacetedissue that requires a comprehensive approach to address effectively potentialsolutions for the pathologist.

_{Suren Avunjian}: Burnout can include increasedawareness of burnout symptoms and risks within the pathology community.Encourage open dialogue of this issue. Implement strategies to balance theworkloads, and create a more sustainable work environment. This may includeredistribution of tasks, equitable case distribution, and integratingautomation and digital technologies to streamline workflows and reducerepetitive tasks.

_{Suren Avunjian}: Offer flexible work hours and remotework options by implementation of digital pathology to accommodate individualneeds and preferences. Promote healthy work-life balance by encouragingreasonable work hours, time off, and vacations. Ensure that staff members areable to take breaks and time off without feeling guilty or overwhelmed uponreturn.

_{Suren Avunjian}: Foster a supportive, inclusive, andcollaborative work culture. Encourage teamwork, open communication and peersupport. Provide opportunities for professional development and growth. Conductregular assessments to monitor the wellbeing of pathologists and staff toidentify early signs of burnout, and encourage feedback and implement necessarychanges to improve the work environment.

_{Suren Avunjian}: Recognize and reward hard work anddedication, acknowledge achievement, and provide opportunities for advancementin career growth. Implement technologies that provide a positive feedback loop.Regularly review and update your policies and practices to address the evolvingneeds of pathologists and adapt to the changes in the field.

_{Suren Avunjian}: Modernize laboratory technology to remove asmany unnecessary clicks and redundant steps in the daily workflow to improvejob satisfaction. Addressing pathologists burnout requires a combination ofthese strategies, tailored to the specific needs and circumstances of theindividuals and the organizations involved.

_{Suren Avunjian}: By taking aproactive approach, we can reduce burnout rates and improve overall jobsatisfaction and the wellbeing in the pathology field. At LigoLab, we'verecently hired top UI and UX researchers and designers to continue ourcommitment to improve the product and the industry. We're currently conductingextensive user research with dozens of pathologists within our client advisorygroup and laboratory staff to take the solution to the next level by Q4 of thisyear.

_{Suren Avunjian}: Our goal is to improve the LIS userinterface further and reduce the cognitive load on the user base. In today'sdemo, we will review some automation strategies available out of the box tocombat staff shortage and burnout.

_{Suren Avunjian}: Please take it away. Petros.

_{Petros Martirosian}: Hello everyone. Thank you forjoining our demo. Today, we're going to take a look at some examples on how tosign out some basic cases using step-by-step instructions. These examples willinclude how to sign out a case with a camera, how to sign out a case without acamera, how to sign out using a diagnosis template, and finally, how to signout a case using the pathology software.

_{Petros Martirosian}: Right now we're looking at a cleanscreen. So let's go ahead and launch the software.

_{Petros Martirosian}: So right off the bat, you'll noticethat after launching the LIS software and logging in, it takes me directly tothe pathologist queue. And it's actually filtering all of the cases by thecurrent user. So let's say for example, if Suren logged in then it could be setto see only his cases. Also worthy to note that regardless of what type of useryou are, if you're a pathologist or grossing tech, the laboratory software canalso be configured to take you directly to your default screen, saving you acouple of clicks right from the get go.

_{Petros Martirosian}: All right, so let's dive right in.As you can see, I've already prepared some slides here for our test cases. Thevery first example we're going to take a look at is going to be the quickest ofthem all which is signing out a case with a template. Please pay attention tothe number of clicks and steps it'll take for me to actually release this case.

_{Petros Martirosian}: I'm gonna grab my first slide. I'mgonna scan it into the barcode scanner.

_{Petros Martirosian}: Once the case comes up, the firstthing you'll notice is that the cursor is automatically in the final diagnosisfield. So here I can type in the shorthand for my macro, which in this case isa DMD X one. And as soon as I hit space, this template automatically populatesa microscopic description for the site.

_{Petros Martirosian}: The final diagnosis, it inserts acomment and adds the CPT and ICD 10 codes for this case. You'll also noticethat all of that information automatically populated on the report, in theprevious section on the right hand side here. So now we can just simply clickon release. After you click release, you'll get this pre-release checklistwindow that pops up, which is a last minute heads up display of all relevantinformation such as missing or incomplete interoperative consultations orcorrelations.

_{Petros Martirosian}: The LIS system prompts you and reminds you tocomplete them. An important thing to mention is that the pre-release checklistis an optional window, and it can be turned off based on the user's preference.So after this, you simply click, okay.

_{Petros Martirosian}: The results get released and you'rebackn in your default queue with a list of all your cases. As you can see, thatwas pretty quick. Now let's move on to cases with the usage of a microscope camera and one without. So again, I'm going to select my second case here. I'mgonna scan my slide. And at this point, if you want to capture an imagedirectly from the camera what you would need to do is click on this littlecamera icon on the right hand side.

_{Petros Martirosian}: It'll bring up whatever yourmicroscope camera is showing you. We'll make some adjustments on the microscopehere. And once you're ready to capture, click on this little camera icon again,and it will automatically add the image to the case. And you can add a quickdescription here. So slide image one and click save.

_{Petros Martirosian}: Once we've added the image again,we can go ahead and type in our final diagnosis. Again, I'll do DMD X one andas stated before, all of the information such as microscopic description, finaldiagnosis, report, comment, and the ICD 10 codes have automatically populated.So at this point we're ready to release. We get our pre-release checklist,we'll click okay. And the case is signed out.

_{Petros Martirosian}: Alright, for our next case, we'lldo almost the same thing but this time, instead of using the microscope camerato attach an image we're going to select an actual image file. Let's saysomething that was captured by an external source and sent out to you. So let'sgo ahead and pick our third case here.

_{Petros Martirosian}: Again, I'm going to scan using mybarcode scanner. But this time around, instead of clicking on the camera icon,we're going go ahead on this little folder icon to the left of it. When youclick on this, it opens up an explorer window that lets you navigate your localworkstation's folders and pick the specific image file that you received fromthat external source.

_{Petros Martirosian}: I'll just go ahead and pick one ofthese examples here. I'll give it a quick description, save, and again, you seeit automatically shows up on the report. For the final diagnosis this timearound, I'm going to show you how to navigate the list of templates in case youmight have forgotten the relevant code for it. To do this, we're going to clickon the final diagnosis template dropdown.

_{Petros Martirosian}: Here you see we have a plethora ofdifferent templates that have been configured. You can navigate this list tofind the exact code for your template and double click to apply it, or if youfeel like it, you could just simply shorthand the final diagnosis code, haveall of the relevant information, populate quickly and click on release. You getthe pre-release checklist. Verify that all of the information is correct andhit okay.

_{Petros Martirosian}: And again, the case is now signedout.

_{Petros Martirosian}: For the very last case, we'll takea look at how to sign out a case using only dictation software. So we're notgonna use our hands for the keyboard and mouse, instead using only our voice tonavigate throughout the information system software and sign out theentire case.

_{Petros Martirosian}: So I'm gonna pick up this lastslide here. I'm gonna scan it. I'll go ahead and enable the dictation softwareto start recording. Reactive lymphoid hyperplasia with acute and chronicinflammation consistent with tonsillitis.

_{Petros Martirosian}: Open capture. Capture image. Saveimage. Release report.

_{Petros Martirosian}: And that concludes part one of ourdemo on how to sign out basic cases. We look forward to seeing you in part two,where we'll take a closer look at more complicated cases and how to sign themout.

^{Michael Kalinowski}: Okay. So that was very well done Petros.Very much appreciated. Now we can open things up to questions from theaudience. We want to get your reaction as to what you've seen. Also a reminderthat we do have polls. If you go to the poll option at the bottom of yourscreen here in Zoom you can weigh in on the poll questions that we have puttogether as well.

_{Suren Avunjian}: We have a few questions that have comein.

_{Suren Avunjian}: What voice recognition software areyou using?

_{Suren Avunjian}: Petros, if you could talk a little bitabout the different voice recognition systems.

_{Petros Martirosian}: Sure, of course. So we supportpretty much all of the different vendors that are out there.

_{Petros Martirosian}: The specific software vendor thatwas used in this particular demo is called Fusion Narrate. Like I said, whileall of the other platforms out there are pretty workable, there's a couple ofkey features in there, and these are fairly new features that make the entireexperience a little bit more seamless.

_{Petros Martirosian}: So the the short answer to that isthe solution in the demo is called Fusion Narrate. We do have a goodpartnership with them, so if you're interested in seeing a demo we candefinitely put you in touch with the correct resources so they can get you ademo account. You can start playing around in their system.

_{Suren Avunjian}: Great, thank you, Petros. Yep. Anyvoice dictation system that Petros mentioned can be configured to fully not onlybe able to use speech to text into the platform, but you can also use it tocontrol and navigate through the LIS system and our team has all of theprebuilt scripts to help you get that going fairly quickly.

_{Suren Avunjian}: Michael, do we have some morequestions?

^{Michael Kalinowski}: Yeah. Here's one. Do I have to go backto my queue every time I want to open a new case?

_{Petros Martirosian}: So the answer to that question ispretty straightforward. There is functionality available that lets you set itto a mode so that as soon as you're done releasing the current case, it willautomatically open up the case right after it that's in the queue.

_{Petros Martirosian}: That's one of the modes. There's asilent, open next, which means there's no interaction or any prompts. But also,if you want to take a short little lunch break, there's another mode that saysas soon as you release a case, it'll prompt you saying, Hey, do you wanna openup the next case?

_{Petros Martirosian}: So, a couple of different ways ofdoing it. And, you know, we're always open to suggestions and feedback of howthese options are working out for you. Or if you can provide feedback as to newconceptual ideas that you would want the software to feature, we always haveour ears open to that.

_{Suren Avunjian}: Everything in LigoLab isa real time queue, so even when the laboratory system goes back to the queues,it automatically refreshes. And if there is anything sitting in that queue,that means there's some work to do. So we promote working and in real time,meaning you grab the slide in front of you and there's a scanner, so that wayyou cannot mix up and open up the wrong case. Instead the LIS system opens thecase for you.

_{Suren Avunjian}: We really recommend using the slidemode and if there is digital pathology integrated, we can have contextualintegration where it's opening up the actual whole slide image on the side,you're able to capture field of views, and those automatically populate intothe case as well as the analysis with the future AI tools. So we're reallyexcited about this level of modernization of the LIS platform.

^{Michael Kalinowski}: Here's a good question, one that oftencomes up in software demonstrations. Can I make edits directly on the reportpreview?

_{Petros Martirosian}: So the way the LIS is designed isto make it more error proof. The entire layout and structure of the reporttemplate is pre-configured so that you don't have to worry about, Hey, how canI adjust or tweak this text to take a certain amount of space? We don't wantour users to have to waste time creating tables, dragging where the columnstarts or where it ends. So we basically create the shell in all of thespecific areas where the content should go into, so that the end user, all theyhave to worry about is just plugging in the content as you saw from thedemonstration.

_{Petros Martirosian}: We give you a quick preview of whatthe report looks like even before you enter your diagnosis information,microscopic descriptions, or even comments. But you see in real time, as soonas you start adding all these values in their discrete fields, the LIS systemis smart enough in real time to just update the report so there's really noneed to make adjustments directly on.

_{Petros Martirosian}: I would say we have a hundredpercent success rate on the feedback that we've gotten, especially from some ofthe clients that we're using legacy sort of methods such as using MicrosoftWord to build their reports.

_{Petros Martirosian}: They're like, the difference isnight and day. So the feedback is always a hundred percent positive when usingthis approach.

_{Suren Avunjian}: Yeah. Everything in LigoLab is templatized, so we're able to support based on customer preferences different types of layouts, different formats, graphics, and so on.

_{Suren Avunjian}: And the system is able to basicallycustomize that per customer so no one has to worry about it. Pathologists don'thave to go fiddle with scaling images. The LIS does all these functionsautomatically, and the pathologist always has just one place to enter theresults in their own format and it's the job of the LIS platform to handle allthe richness and the personalization of that report.

^{Michael Kalinowski}: Another one. How sensitive is the voicerecognition software? Will it pick up every voice in the room? We have a fewpeople in somewhat close quarters. This person is describing their workenvironment.

_{Petros Martirosian}: Sure that's an excellent question.So the answer to this is kind of twofold.

_{Petros Martirosian}: Number one, each voice dictationsoftware comes with a little gauge, a setting that you can adjust whether ornot you want it to be super sensitive. Or, to be a little more rigid with whatit picks up. That's on the front. One of the more recent implementations wedid, we were actually in an environment where the histology department, wherethe grossers were actually part of the hospital system and they had a lot ofventilation that was creating background noise.

_{Petros Martirosian}: And the second approach to that, inconjunction with the adjusting of the setting in the dictation software isthere is a handful of different third party software vendors that control voiceisolation. and these were perfectly in conjunction with the dictation softwarewhere you get near perfect results.

_{Petros Martirosian}: As far as noise cancellation, thesolutions that are out there in the market right now work near perfectly. Sothat's a non-issue basically.

_{Suren Avunjian}: Great. I would love to get somefeedback on what kind of workflows you would like to see. We have the LISavailable. We could show any kind of workflows that you would like, or also ifthere's any future webinar topics you would like us to prepare, we would lovethat feedback as well.

_{Suren Avunjian}: We do have another question. If thereis time at the end of the presentation, could you demonstrate more featuresavailable with voice dictation, specifically navigating through differentwindows and or tabs?

_{Petros Martirosian}: Unfortunately we weren't preparedfor a voice dictation demo but it sounds like this might be a very specifictopic that we can base a webinar on.

_{Petros Martirosian}: I would love to have everythingready and like I said, we can demonstrate. And, you know, I'll tie my handsbehind my back just to make it a case in point that you can literally navigatethrough every single piece of the LIS software, whether it's accessioning,grossing, pathologists, sign out send outs.

_{Petros Martirosian}: I think it's a great, great ideafor next webinar to be voice dictation-centric. Excellent suggestion.

_{Suren Avunjian}: And I've shared the video that Petroshad put together for this demo that you're welcome to share with yourcolleagues, and we'll also share this entire webinar with all the Q&A aswell.

_{Suren Avunjian}: So feel free to see the link in thechat that was just posted. That's just a 10 minute clip.

_{Suren Avunjian}: So we're coming to the top of the 30minutes we had scheduled for this demonstration. Are there any last minutequestions?

_{Suren Avunjian}: Michael?

^{Michael Kalinowski}: I'll just throw it out there. The topicof pathologist burnout and also staffing shortages. We worked with Dr. JamesCrawford recently who really spelled out some of the issues on staffing inparticular, and I have shared that document in the webinar chat as well. So youhave the video form of the demonstration that Petros showed us earlier that youcan grab and share with colleagues, and of course you can also take this URLthat I just put up there that goes into detail on why we have a medicallaboratory technologist shortage.

_{Suren Avunjian}: Great. Thank you for that, Michael.

_{Suren Avunjian}: Thank you all for attending. This hasbeen wonderful and we look forward to to many more of these. Have a fantasticrest of the day. And Michael, actually, if you could go through the takeaways,that'd be great.

^{Michael Kalinowski}: Sure. So we were hoping that thoseattending leave this webinar understanding the impacts of pathologist burnoutand staffing shortages. They're widespread. I think there's no argument there.We believe modern LIS software and automation canstreamline and improve overall laboratory performance. Hopefully you agreeafter what you saw during the course of these 30 minutes.

^{Michael Kalinowski}: An efficient user interface can reallyincrease productivity for pathologists. Petros demonstrated that it is in factpossible to result and release a case without a single mouse click. And again,a viable long-term solution to what's causing the stress is within reach, andthat would be working with your laboratory information system partner.

^{Michael Kalinowski}: We really feel strongly aboutpartnership and really like hearing what those who use our LIS system want andneed to have that LIS work even better for them.

_{Suren Avunjian}: Today we covered a very small sliverof LIS workflow. We have really modeled the reality of the laboratory and the LIS platform to cover every life cycle andevery role, and we've put in this level of care as Petros demonstrated just ona few of the different use cases for the pathologist to every operator of theLIS platform. Our goal is to support and positively transform your operation.

_{Suren Avunjian}: Thank you everyone. Thank you verymuch. Have a great day.