• New joint venture “Neuberg DIGIPATH, Powered by OptraSCAN® Inc.” to focus on providing advanced and affordable digital pathology solutions

Dubai: Neuberg Diagnostics, one of the top four diagnostics service providers in India that has centres in the UAE, South Africa and India, and US-based global digital pathology solutions provider OptraSCAN® Inc. announced today the launch of Global TELEPath™ Network for the pathologist community in UAE, India and South Africa under a new joint venture, “Neuberg DIGIPATH, Powered by OptraSCAN®Inc”.

The joint venture formalities are to be completed in three months. The announcement was made at MedLab 2019, the annual event for the international medical laboratory community, in Dubai. OptraSCAN’s Global TELEPath™ Network was first launched in the US and European region last year.

The JV combines the superior histopathology and cytology services provided by Neuberg Diagnostics with advanced digital pathology capabilities offered by OptraSCAN. It brings to the table a whole new array of services related to digitization of tissue slides and telepathology with an objective of making new-age life-saving healthcare technology available to the human kind. It promises access to a large pool of histopathologists – who diagnose and study diseases using expert medical interpretation of cells and tissue samples. Histopathology is, among other applications, integral to cancer management through the staging and grading of tumours.

“Neuberg’s vision has always been to deploy the most advanced technologies assisted by data science and artificial intelligence tools. This has brought some of the best pathologists, biochemists, geneticists, microbiologists and several other clinical lab professionals from around the world to work closely, sharing knowledge and using the latest generation of diagnostics techniques”, said Dr. GSK Velu, founder and chairman, Neuberg Diagnostics. “With OptraSCAN’s expertise in providing new-age technology well-equipped with analysis tools based on artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), the new joint venture will enable us to expand the service as well as the geographic reach of Neuberg's existing lab services. We expect economies of scale from this partnership to help us bring better value to our clients and expand our service offerings.”

The services of the new venture services comprise of digitization of tissue slides, storage and archiving, slide discussions and digital learning modules, automated slide processing platforms and second-opinion tele-consulting services. Apart from user-friendly features like a compact, high-resolution and cloud-ready platform with smart-recognition facilities, the new entity promises an economically priced “walk-away technology” for the healthcare sector. The partners intend to provide labs with cutting-edge technology using the following products and services 

  • OptraSCAN’s 15-slide Brightfield Digital Pathology Scanner
  • OptraSCAN’s Image Management tools 
  • OptraSCAN’s Telepathology Software platform and second Opinion Services through a teleportal to be launched with com
  • Neuberg’s own Histopathology Network based in India / Middle East & Africa 
  • Enrolling world class histopatholgists for second Opinion Services through a TelePath Site calledcom
  • Cost Effective Neutral digitization services for all healthcare institutions and patients in all key locations where Neuberg network is present 
  • Digital Sharing and Learning platform for practicing Pathologists & Pathology Students using Data Analytics, Artificial Intelligence Tools and Digital Slide Library 

“We are delighted to be partnering with Neuberg Diagnostics. ‘Neuberg DIGIPATH, Powered by OptraSCAN® Inc.’, is the next step forward in a healthcare collaboration that combines the expertise and capabilities of OptraSCAN with Neuberg’s to provide advanced and affordable digital pathology products in India, Middle East, Africa and beyond,” said Mr. Abhi Gholap, Founder & CEO, OptraSCAN. “OptraSCAN’s Global TELEPath™ Network has great market traction in USA and European region, so this venture is also a part of our global strategy to create innovative healthcare affiliations with leading healthcare providers around the globe to enhance our reach in untapped regions.”

Through this partnership joint venture, the companies aim to expand market base and have planned a phased region-wise expansion. In phase-I, they intend to launch its products and services in UAE, India and South Africa. In Phase-II, the JV hopes to expand its offerings to the rest of Asia, Europe and the rest of Africa. The JV intends to make on-demand cutting-edge digital pathology solutions available to leading Middle East hospitals, taking healthcare and diagnostics deep into the digital age.

“Digital pathology – the future scope of pathology opens up new vistas to daily reporting, expert opinions, peer consults, quality assessment, storage and artificial intelligence NEUBERG DIGIPATH builds bridges along this journey with complete digital pathology solutions” says Dr. Jayaram, the Head of Histopathology & Cytology Services of Neuberg Diagnostics Network.

Digital Pathology: Digital pathology is an image-based information environment enabled by computer technology that facilitates the management of information generated from digital slides. Digital pathology is enabled in part by virtual microscopy, the practice of converting glass slides into digital slides that can be viewed, managed, shared and analyzed on a computer monitor. The advent of whole-slide imaging has made digital pathology one of the most promising avenues of diagnostic medicine for better, faster and cheaper diagnosis, prognosis and prediction of cancer and other important diseases.

Telepathology: Telepathology uses telecommunications technology to facilitate the transfer of image-rich pathology data between distant locations for the purposes of diagnosis, education, and research. This advanced technology is turning out to be a boon for global healthcare.

About Neuberg Diagnostics: When three large medical laboratory chains in India, one in South Africa and one in the UAE decided to come together under one organisation and pool their combined history of 200 years and experience of dealing with 20 million medical samples annually, Neuberg Diagnostics was born in October 2017. Within one year of its inception Neuberg has become one of the Top 4 Diagnostics companies of Indian Origin with comprehensive presence across India, UAE and South Africa. The network is now being expanded to other parts of Middle East / Africa along with upcoming laboratories in USA/ Europe too. 

Neuberg brings to the medical world the labs’ combined strength  to perform over 5,000 kinds of investigations and promote prevention and early diagnosis, focused wellness programmes and structured disease management for rare diseases using the most advanced technologies assisted by data science and AI tools. This has brought the best pathologists, biochemists, geneticists, microbiologists and several other clinical lab professionals from around the world to work closely, sharing knowledge and using the latest generation of diagnostics techniques such as Molecular Diagnostics, Genomics, Proteomics, Metabolomics and Digital Pathology.

About OptraSCAN, Inc: An ISO 13485 certified company marketing CE marked whole slide scanners for IVD use, OptraSCAN®  developed the world’s first ‘On-Demand Digital Pathology’ System. The company is focused on delivering fully-integrated, affordable systems and solutions that serve as the perfect tool for transition from conventional microscopy to digital pathology for the effective acquisition of whole slide images, viewing, storing, real time sharing, and reporting via On-Demand or outright purchase model.

San Jose, CA based OptraSCAN’s digital pathology system comprises of 15-slide small-footprint, low- and high-throughput WSI scanners that are well equipped for brightfield application; an integrated image viewer and image management system called IMAGEPath®, OptraASSAYS™ image analysis, a cloud-based lab information management system (LIMS) called CLOUDPath® and CARDS™ (computer aided region detection system). OptraSCAN’s integrated solutions include TELEPath™, a comprehensive telepathology solution and AI and ML-based automated image analysis solutions that have been developed to provide accurate assessment of nuclear and membrane biomarker, immuno-oncology and prostate cancer. Follow Us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Media Contacts:
OptraSCAN India Pvt. Ltd: Shruti Soman | Manager – Marketing Communications | 91.20.66540900 | +91.98600 55849 | s.soman@optraventures.com 

Neuberg Diagnostics Private Limited: Novella Maria Lawrence | Associate Vice President – Marketing | 91.98672 38892 | maria@neubergdiagnostics.com 

Shibu Itty Kuttickal, Dubai: +971.50 1545 613   
Vimal Mammen, Dubai: +971.50 7456 291