Digital workflow management for quality assessment in pathology.

Information systems (IS) are well established in the multitude of departments and practices of pathology. Apart from being a collection of doctor's reports, IS can be used to organize and evaluate workflow processes. We report on such a digital workflow management using IS at the Department of Pathology, University Hospital Magdeburg, Germany, and present an evaluation of workflow data collected over a whole year. This allows us to measure workflow processes and to distinguish the effects of alterations in the workflow for quality assessment. Moreover, digital workflow management provides the basis for the integration of diagnostic virtual microscopy.