French region goes live with digital pathology from Sectra to speed up cancer diagnostics

The first phase of the rollout covers four hospitals across the PACA region in southern France, all of which are now live:

• Institut Paoli-Calmettes (IPC) in Marseille, an oncology center that is part of a national network of cancer centers
• Assistance Publique des Hôpitaux de Marseille (APHM), one of the largest hospital groups in France
• Centre Hospitalier Aix-Pertuis (CHAP), a public hospital serving the Aix-en-Provence area
• Centre Antoine Lacassagne (CAL) in Nice, a comprehensive cancer center that is part of the Unicancer network

"This regional project is an important step toward strengthening cancer care across the PACA region. By working more closely with other partner hospitals, we can share expertise and ensure that patients receive faster and more accurate diagnoses. Digitizing pathology workflows through Sectra's solution is central to this transformation and will allow us to collaborate seamlessly across sites and access cases regardless of where the patient is being treated," says Professor Nicolas Macagno at APHM.

Professor Emmanuelle Charafe at IPC continues:

"The deployment of digital pathology represents a major advance for diagnostic practice and medical cooperation at the regional level. At Institut Paoli-Calmettes, this solution enables our teams to access records more quickly, streamline exchanges between experts, and strengthen collaboration with partner institutions. Beyond these organizational gains, it helps provide patients with faster access to highly specialized expertise and further improves the quality of cancer diagnostics. Not only has the Sectra solution improved the accuracy of cancer diagnosis, but it also enables precise evaluation of biomarkers, giving our patients access to precision medicine in oncology. It also allows us to fulfill our mission as a leading cancer center for patients across the region, as it has streamlined exchanges and second opinions. The implementation process with Sectra has been excellent, and we look forward to continuing our partnership."

These four implementations follow orders received under Sectra's 2022 framework agreement with UniHA, a cooperative of French public hospitals, which enables connected hospitals to purchase the solution on pre-negotiated terms and conditions. The second phase, covering the four remaining hospitals in the PACA region, CHU de Nice, Centres Hospitaliers de Toulon and Avignon, and the Centre Hospitalier d'Ajaccio (CHA) in Corsica, is already underway and planned to be completed during 2027.

Sectra's digital pathology solution allows pathologists to review and collaborate around cases in a way that has not been possible before. The digital workflow provides instant and, if needed, remote access to digital images of tissue samples instead of relying on physical glass slides reviewed in microscopes. By consolidating pathology into a single solution, collaboration among pathologists, both within a department, between sites, and for external consultations with referent expert pathologists, becomes significantly easier, marking an essential step toward improving overall regional cancer care.

"I'm delighted to see yet another part of France working across hospital boundaries. It's essential for efficient diagnostics, especially in cancer care where the experts are often based at different sites. We are really looking forward to seeing our digital pathology solution facilitating the hospitals' important work and to work closely with them to ensure it will support them now and in the future," says Fabien Lozach, President of Sectra in France.

The pathology module is a part of Sectra's enterprise imaging solution which provides a unified strategy for all imaging needs while lowering operational costs. The scalable and modular solution, with a VNA at its core, allows healthcare providers to grow from ology to ology and from enterprise to enterprise. Visit Sectra's website to read more about Sectra and why it's top-ranked in "Best in KLAS".