PathCentral has introduced an online network that will link thousands of hospitals in China with pathologists in the United States. The network is the result of a joint venture between PathCentral, which is based in Irvine, Calif., and the Chinese firm Kindstar Globalgene Technology. It will allow pathologists practicing in the United States to deliver results to Chinese physicians via cloud computing. Kindstar, based in Wuhan, has labs in that city, as well as Beijing and Shanghai. It provides diagnostic testing to more than 3,300 Chinese hospitals. Although it was founded only a decade ago, it is the largest such testing business in China. “Demand for pathology consultants in China is growing at a rate that simply cannot be accommodated locally,” said Shiang Huang, M.D., Kindstar’s chief executive officer. The dramatic growth of the Chinese economy, plus the country’s recent investment of hundreds of billions of dollars in health care infrastructure, has driven a surging demand for pathology services in recent years. Chinese pathologists already have a fairly close professional relationship with their colleagues in North America. Its advocacy group, the International Association of Chinese Pathologists, typically has its annual meeting in conjunction with the United States and Canadian Academy […]
PathCentral has introduced an online network that will link thousands of hospitals in China with pathologists in the United States.
The network is the result of a joint venture between PathCentral, which is based in Irvine, Calif., and the Chinese firm Kindstar Globalgene Technology. It will allow pathologists practicing in the United States to deliver results to Chinese physicians via cloud computing.
Kindstar, based in Wuhan, has labs in that city, as well as Beijing and Shanghai. It provides diagnostic testing to more than 3,300 Chinese hospitals. Although it was founded only a decade ago, it is the largest such testing business in China.
“Demand for pathology consultants in China is growing at a rate that simply cannot be accommodated locally,” said Shiang Huang, M.D., Kindstar’s chief executive officer. The dramatic growth of the Chinese economy, plus the country’s recent investment of hundreds of billions of dollars in health care infrastructure, has driven a surging demand for pathology services in recent years.
Chinese pathologists already have a fairly close professional relationship with their colleagues in North America. Its advocacy group, the International Association of Chinese Pathologists, typically has its annual meeting in conjunction with the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology.
According to Huang, the arrangement will allow Kindstar’s hospital clients to have their pathology specimens examined by U.S. physicians, whose diagnostic skills are considered to be more sophisticated than physicians’ in China. “This is a tremendous milestone for the medical community in China and for our ability to serve patients throughout the country,” he said.
Kindstar has been using PathCentral’s anatomic pathology laboratory information system, or APLIS, since 2011, to link the hospitals it serves in China electronically.
PathCentral CEO Jaye Connolly said the new network represents the next step in the company’s plan to link pathologists electronically throughout the world.
