Freedom to Grow: Why an Open, Interoperable Platform Is Non-Negotiable for Digital Pathology

Interoperability remains a major barrier to the scaled adoption of digital pathology.

Signify Research took this away from their recent discussions with seven pathologists and leaders across academic and health system laboratories. It’s also a concern we hear often in our own conversations with laboratory leaders.

The challenge lies in the technology ecosystem digital pathology depends on. A platform sits at the center, surrounded by scanners, an LIS, and AI applications. To support a laboratory’s goals over the long term, that platform must adapt as the organization adds sites, inherits systems through acquisitions, and adopts technologies that do not yet exist.

The rapid pace of image analysis AI development makes this flexibility even more important. New applications are constantly expanding what laboratories can do, and in turn, raising the stakes of the pathology platform decision. Laboratories need the freedom to adopt the right tool for each use case without being constrained by a single vendor’s ecosystem.

That is why interoperability is not simply an IT requirement. It is a business need, and a critical safeguard for the return on a digital pathology investment. This is especially important as the industry consolidates and some vendors have less incentive to support meaningful interoperability. 

Not Every "Open" Platform is Open in Practice

Avoiding vendor lock-in means evaluating how openness works in practice, not simply whether a vendor claims it. A platform can be labeled open while integrating with a limited set of solutions. And even where integrations exist, poor interoperability can still add clicks, force interface switching, and create workflow inefficiencies that pull focus away from the case. 

A truly open, interoperable platform seamlessly connects end-to-end workflows, data, and analyses across the technologies a laboratory chooses, so pathologists can work in a flow state. Otherwise, friction creeps into every part of their routine.

The gap between the claim and the reality often comes down to business incentives. Vendors know laboratories want flexibility, so “open” has become an expected promise. But a vendor that sells an end-to-end technology stack may still benefit when customers remain within its ecosystem of scanners, applications, and services, even while marketing its platform as open. 

Those incentives can shape which third-party integrations receive investment, how deeply they work, and whether emerging tools are supported at all. An independent platform provider is aligned differently: its value grows as it connects more of the technologies its customers choose. The practical value of that alignment is clearest for laboratories planning for growth.

Interoperability Protects the Lab’s Economics of Growth

Every growth opportunity introduces complexity. Rising volume can expose the limits of an existing LIS. An acquisition may bring a new technology stack. Expanding into a new specialty may require different AI applications. If the pathology platform cannot absorb this change and added operational complexity, growth is not possible or comes with a steep tax: more interfaces, more manual work, and greater disruption.

An open, interoperable platform gives a laboratory confidence to grow, knowing it can connect new sites and systems, accommodate technologies inherited through acquisitions, and integrate new AI applications without rebuilding the workflow around each opportunity.

The opposite is also true. A closed platform can constrain the very growth the digital pathology investment was intended to enable. When a laboratory is locked into a vendor’s hardware, applications, or integration model, each new opportunity becomes harder and more expensive to pursue. 

Concentriq is Open by Design

For Proscia, openness and interoperability have been core to how we've built Concentriq since our earliest days. This approach is reinforced by our position as an independent vendor.

Integrations Designed For How Pathologists Actually Work

We design every integration around how pathologists actually work and not around the technology. For LIS integrations like Epic Beaker, Concentriq structures data by cases, parts, and blocks, mirroring the LIS so that the platform feels like a natural extension of existing processes and muscle memory.

The same logic applies to AI. Rather than contextual launches that pull pathologists into a third-party interface, Concentriq delivers a purpose-driven workflow around each application’s intended use. 

‍

Achieving that fit requires close collaboration with our AI partners. Together, we recognize that algorithm performance alone is not enough; the technology must fit naturally into the pathologist’s workflow to create value in practice. As one of those partners explains:

‍

“The best AI in the world does not help a pathologist if it doesn’t fit the way they already work. That fit is one of the hardest things to get right in digital pathology, and the Proscia team gets it right. It is key to making our technology valuable to the labs we share.”

— Erik Piorkowski, Head of Diagnostic Sales, Americas, Mindpeak GmbH

‍

Concentriq applies this approach across the 230+ applications* spanning 30+ tissue types in our precision medicine AI portfolio.

‍

Predetermined Change Control Plan Enables Us To Evolve Our Diagnostic Platform

Proscia’s latest FDA clearance for Concentriq AP-Dx* authorizes a Predetermined Change Control Plan (PCCP) for adding FDA-cleared whole slide scanners and their associated image formats, as well as FDA-cleared displays. This means that we can implement these changes without a new 510(k) submission as long as we do so in a way that’s consistent with the PCCP. 

The result is a more efficient path to market that turns openness from an architectural principle into a regulated, repeatable process. 

Committed to DICOM

Scanner lock-in is one of the most common ways that interoperability breaks down in practice. Concentriq's open architecture addresses this, and our work with the DICOM standard further protects it. Proscia actively participates in the DICOM Working Group 26 (WG-26), the official DICOM standards committee focused on Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. 

In WG-26’s Spring 2025 Whole Slide Imaging Connectathon—a multi-vendor, live interoperability test—Concentriq seamlessly received data from eight acquisition modalities (scanners), supported query and retrieval from ten image display (viewer) participants, and integrated with five evidence creators (annotators), all without custom code or workarounds. The results were published in the Journal of Pathology Informatics.

Proscia Ready Scales Digital Pathology Adoption with Confidence

While technology often dominates the conversation around interoperability, partnership matters, too. Proscia Ready is our alliance of solution providers committed to advancing digital pathology adoption at scale.

Beyond integrations with Concentriq, partners in this alliance offer joint support agreements with Proscia, giving laboratories a single, coordinated source of support as they grow their digital pathology programs.

What Proscia Customers Say

KLAS Research’s 2026 report on the US digital pathology market offers perspective on Proscia’s commitment to interoperability. Based entirely on customer feedback, we earned the highest score for supporting integration goals. We also received the top overall performance score at 95.2, and 100% of our customers reported to KLAS that they would buy Concentriq again.

Keep the Laboratory’s Options—and Opportunities—Open

Openness and interoperability shape pathologists’ day-to-day experiences, but their impact extends much further: they enable laboratories to achieve the goals that drove their digital pathology investments in the first place. Whether improving productivity, unlocking efficiency with AI, or capitalizing on new opportunities for biopharma collaboration, none of these are achievable without an open foundation at the center of the laboratory.

That foundation also determines how confidently and cost-effectively a laboratory can grow. It helps the lab add volume, sites, services, and partnerships without multiplying interfaces or replacing core infrastructure. It preserves the freedom to choose technology according to the lab’s own priorities and allows each new capability to build on the digital investment already made.

The stakes will only grow as pathology AI moves toward clinically essential biomarkers, AI-enabled companion diagnostics, and other precision medicine applications. A laboratory should not have to reconstruct its technology environment each time a valuable new tool reaches the market. The platform decision made today will influence how quickly the lab can put tomorrow’s advances to work for its clients, pathologists, and patients.

‍

*Concentriq AP-Dx is an aid to the pathologist for viewing, managing, reviewing, and interpreting digital images of scanned surgical pathology slides prepared from FFPE tissue, for the purpose of pathology primary diagnosis when used with specified interoperable components. Concentriq AP-Dx is not intended for use with frozen sections, cytology, or non-FFPE hematopathology specimens. Concentriq AP-Dx is FDA-cleared, Health Canada-licensed, and CE-marked under the EU IVDR for pathology primary diagnosis. Concentriq AP and Concentriq LS are for Research Use Only. Not for use in diagnostic procedures. Proscia’s AI applications are available for research use only.