Dr. Samiei: I’m a Computational (AI) Pathologist here at Aiforia. I help to ensure that the software we develop meets the standards of what pathologists consider clinically reasonable. I also help clinical customers develop software that works with their research or clinical needs. On a high level, I act as the bridge between software developers and clinical pathologists.
I did my residency in clinical and anatomic pathology, so I’m a general pathologist by training. I also have experience in computer programming, so I combine this knowledge with my clinical skills to fulfill the role I am in right now.
There are very few players in the software industry creating tools for pathologists and Aiforia is one of the biggest ones. Aiforia has one of the largest footprints not just in the US, but globally. Additionally, the Aiforia Create platform is based on empowering researchers and pathologists to develop their own tailored AI models. We don’t give clients a “black box” with a fixed solution. We allow researchers to be involved in the creation of their own solutions. This ensures that each AI model meets the threshold criteria for each practice’s working pathologists.
If a pathology practice is considering transitioning to digital pathology, I would say there is a short-term and long-term plan they need to account for. The long-term outlook would be to anticipate a ready-to-use software to which you can feed any image and receive a result. The field is about 5-6 years away from developing these one-shot type products, unless there is a quantum leap in self-supervised learning technology. The short-term plan would be to find a company, such as Aiforia, which allows you to develop your own AI models which fit your research, scanners, and pathologists.
My favorite part would be watching this already incredibly successful company grow. On any given day I work with people in the US, Finland, Sweden, Norway, and many other countries. The most interesting thing is to see how people from all over the world can come together to make such amazing and useful products for pathologists everywhere.
I love working to improve and scale the clinical products that we have. For example, I am working on the Aiforia® Clinical AI Models for Breast Cancer which help to quantify Ki67, Estrogen, and Progesterone positive and negative cells. Again, I am a pathologist by training so I like to see cutting-edge technology like this being implemented in clinical workflows.