Market Challenges And Opportunities

Global Whole Slide Imaging Market Drivers:

Increasing adoption of digital pathology to enhance lab efficiency is expected to augment the growth of the global whole slide imaging market over the forecast period. Whole slide imaging is a disruptive technology where glass slides are scanned to produce digital images. It is a most recent imaging modality being employed by pathology departments worldwide. For instance, the U.S Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) has also approved select digital whole slide imaging systems for primary diagnoses in surgical pathology, ushering in new applications for digital pathology.

Increase in prevalence of cancer across the globe is expected to boost the growth of the global whole slide imaging market over the forecast period. For instance, whole slide imaging is one of the emerging fields of digital pathology as it explores different methods and applications to enhance clinical care and cancer diagnosis. According to World Health Organization (WHO), cancer was the leading cause of death around the world, accounting for about 10 million deaths in 2020, or nearly one in six deaths. The most common cancers are lung, breast, prostate, and colon and rectum cancers.

Global Whole Slide Imaging Market Restraints:

High cost of whole slide imaging tools or systems is expected to hamper growth of the global whole slide imaging market. For instance, the cost of whole slide imaging in clinical practice involves not only traditional direct cost, but indirect costs including pre-scan, scan, and post-scans cost. An initial capital investment of around US$ 2 million (for hardware and software), a yearly direct cost of around $ 10,000 for the memory to store the digital images and a yearly indirect cost of around $ 650,000 for support personnel.

Stringent regulatory framework is expected to hinder growth of the global whole slide imaging market. For instance, whole slide imaging tools are in the highest risk classification, and thus, require a PMA (Premarket Approval) regulatory path and placing whole slide imaging in the highest risk category for patients. In the U.S., technology manufactured for digital pathology (i.e. scanners, software) are considered medical devices and are regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (USFDA).

Global Whole Slide Imaging Market Opportunities:

Growing popularity of virtual/digital slides, compared to physical slides, is expected to provide significant growth opportunities for players in the whole slide imaging market. For instance, virtual/digital slides can help reduce human error as well as producing precise diagnostic results in short turnaround time, and thus, pathology labs are increasingly adopting this technology to enhance lab efficiency. In October 2019, Olympus Corp. launched SLIDEVIEW VS200. It is a research slide scanner that can capture high-quality virtual slide images and allow advanced quantitative image analysis of samples related to different applications.

Growing applications of whole slide imaging (digital pathology) is expected to offer lucrative growth opportunities for players in the whole slide imaging market. For instance, whole-slide imaging allows pathologists to work remotely in regions with severe logistical constraints due to COVID-19 Pandemic. In May 2020, Indica Labs & Octo, a premiere information technology systems provider to the US Federal Government, announced online COVID Digital Pathology Repository (COVID-DPR), a virtual collection of high resolution microscopic COVID-related human tissue images hosted at the National Institutes of Health.