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SBIR Phase 1
Awardee
Revolutionize Your Pathology Workflow
Robotic Archival Retrieval System
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RoboPath Inc. was founded in 2019 with the goal of significantly improving efficiencies in pathology laboratories and patient safety. As a result, RoboPath has successfully created and patented a Robotic Archival and Retrieval System (RARS). Past innovations have focused on improvements in specimen collection, automation of sample processing and transmission of pathology information to electronic medical record systems, but NOT archiving and retrieval of specimens.
Laboratories in the United States have used outdated archival procedures since the 1920’s despite costing billions in lawsuits, human lives, and causing irreparable damages to numerous individuals. RARS seeks to disrupt these outdated manual processes and create a laboratory environment where: safety is first, productivity is improved, and labs have the capacity to integrate into health systems, hospitals and industry partners.
RoboPath has an experienced leadership team comprised of Barb Yellowlees, CEO, Ossama Tawfik MD, PhD CMO, Jerry Ilk, CTO, and Deena Siegel, CFO.
The Team
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The Technology
RoboPath’s Robotic Archival & Retrieval System (RARS) automates archiving and retrieving of tissue sample slides using state of the art robotics and Artificial Intelligence (AI). It will disrupt the current manual handling of pathology specimens. There are approximately 400 million tissue slides and 200 million tissue blocks produced each year in the US which are required by law to be kept for ten years.
The current practice of handling pathology specimens, along with relevant clinical information is a complex, time consuming and tedious task that is prone to errors and inefficiencies. Automation of the anatomic pathology laboratory (AP lab) process has been challenging. Pressure has been mounting to implement changes in the AP lab world to convert to automation and continuous workflow. Drivers for such change include a demand for decreased turnaround time, competition, staff shortages, error reduction and the need for improvement in safety and quality. Innovations in the field have focused on improvements in specimen collection, automation of sample processing and on pathology reports and transmission of pathology information to the electronic medical record systems, NOT archiving and retrieval.
RoboPath’s RARS is an innovative product that uses robotics and AI to archive and retrieve slides in an efficient and highly organized manner. The automated system will select tissue sample slides for barcode scanning, scan the slide for patient and relevant information, record storage location, then move the slide to a permanent slide storage archival cabinet ultimately allowing on demand retrieval. The archival system is designed to interface with the anatomic pathology lab information system, hospital information system and electronic medical records (EMR). This system can be used anywhere there are pathology laboratories including but not limited to medical centers, hospitals, R&D labs, veterans, or military hospitals.
Our mission when designing RARS was inspired by:
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Innovating in patient care.
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Improve patient safety with maintenance of specimen chain of custody and data protection.
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Standardizing processes to speed patient diagnostics and drug discovery.
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Innovation in telepathology preparing for acceleration of digital pathology adoption.
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End to end automation for the pathology diagnostic process.
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Integrate with Anatomic Pathology Laboratory Information System (LIS) and Hospital Information System (HIS) platforms.
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Cost savings through lean workflow, continuous improvement, and optimization.
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Meet or improve Sustainable Development Goals by:
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Decreased energy consumption.
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Minimized impact on the environment
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