
Jeremy Parry, Founder and Director, DLS Pathology Services
Today, technology is evolving faster than ever and creating a solid impact on almost every industry. Health tech is one of the most essential needs of the hour in the world. As the pandemic has shown, the need to vastly increase laboratory testing and diagnosis has made it of utmost importance for hospitals, labs, and diagnostic centers to merge with technology to provide faster and better results. With its state-of-the-art infrastructure supported by advanced technologies, DLS Pathology Services is committed to supporting local pathology services and communities. The company believes that every medical service, with appropriate support, can develop the pathologists and the laboratory expertise required to support the needs of its local community.
The Face Behind the Brand
Jeremy Parry, Founder and Director of DLS Pathology Services says, “I decided right after graduation that I would channel my interest and experience into a personalized medical service that transcended geographical and societal boundaries, providing value for money and an opportunity to develop new professional relationships.” Before DLS, Jeremy was a doctor and was always interested in collaborating with countries outside Australia, particularly in emerging regions with medical needs. Soon, he realized that Anatomical Pathology offered the perfect opportunity to start a company because of the simplicity of sharing images.
In 2018, being the sole Director and shareholder, Jeremy founded his own company to pursue his dream of designing a service built on remote support and personal connections with clients. Although he had pathology experience and a vision, he had never run a business before and had to learn all the skills to grow a business from scratch.
He shares, “This inevitably led to setbacks and mistakes. Shares changed hands one way then the other, money disappeared down the drain of bad ideas, and undoubtedly, I missed some emerging market opportunities.” With enthusiasm and commitment to succeed, he overcame these setbacks by using the trial-and-error method. Jeremy created a small team of pathologists and scientists, designed a pathology support workflow, and was soon contacted by the Company’s first potential clients. And as of today, the projects flourished and DLS Pathology Services has reviewed over 5000 digital images of pathology cases for clients in Afghanistan, Myanmar, and Vietnam, with discussions with new potential clients underway in Africa, Fiji and the Gulf states.
A Palette of Services
DLS Pathology Services provides a wide range of services including Core Pathology Support, Primary Reporting, Laboratory Support, Clinical Support, and Technical Development and Support. The core service of the company is providing remote consultation support for pathologists. Firstly, the clients share the digital images of their difficult cases to DLS via a range of secure platforms. Then the company uses a consensus approach in which a core team of three pathologists reviews the images and discusses the case and returns a consensus opinion to the clients aiming for a turnaround time of three days. This step is followed by a discussion of the case aimed at providing education and technical advice. Particularly challenging cases are passed to the company’s Extended Consultation Network of sub-specialist pathologists for additional review.
“Our goal is to support local pathology providers and empower them to increase their confidence and scope of work, rather than paper over areas of need, an approach that can lead to long-term dependency,” states Jeremy. He adds, “We think our end-to-end approach emphasizing education and local support is a key differentiating factor from competitor services that encourage out-sourcing of pathology reporting without a commitment to local service growth. With appropriate support, we think every local pathology service can meet the needs of its community.”
Growing with the Client
Over the years, DLS Pathology Services have received a positive response from its clients. The company’s personalized approach allows individual pathologists to make connections, discuss cases, and share knowledge and personal experiences. Its consensus approach encourages the client’s confidence in the opinions DLS offers and its honesty in discussing the difficulty of some cases and the problems in making a firm diagnosis.
When the company approaches new clients it emphasizes the flexible nature of its workflow and willingness to adapt it to local needs and resources. It aims to price its services at levels that ensure affordability and value-for-money, as well as being commercially sustainable.
“When we engage with a client, we want to help that client grow, personally and professionally. We want the pathology service the client is part of to grow and improve, able to expand its scope of work and become a local center of excellence,” asserts Jeremy. He believes that that the key measure of the company’s success is how well a local service performs with their assistance. To achieve this goal, DLS has committed to being as flexible and innovative as possible.
Future Goals
According to Jeremy, Digital Pathology is the most exciting area of medicine and he has many new ideas to develop within the company and discuss with the client. Currently, the business model for providing remote pathology support is in its infancy and will undoubtedly continue to develop and change. This model is set to partly reflect technological advances, such as the decreasing cost of digital whole slide scanners, but it will also involve a re-imagining of how to conduct business across geographical, political, and economic boundaries. DLS aims to help create worldwide neural networks of brainpower that transform not only individual pathology services, but the entire profession in ways that nurture personal interactions and collaborations, and guarantee benefits to patients and local pathology services.
“Digital technology can be the great equalizer of pathology services worldwide and we want to be part of that future. There is also the fledgling world of artificial intelligence (AI) applications that are beginning to make their way into routine diagnostic pathology. This will also grow, although currently, that growth is biased to well-resourced institutions. Our emphasis in AI is to build applications that are adapted to far more challenging environments and budgets, although I won’t give away the details yet!” concludes, Jeremy.
“Digital technology can be the great equalizer of pathology services worldwide and we want to be part of that future. There is also the fledgling world of artificial intelligence (AI) applications that are beginning to make their way into routine diagnostic pathology. This will also grow, although currently, that growth is biased to well-resourced institutions. Our emphasis in AI is to build applications that are adapted to far more challenging environments and budgets, although I won’t give away the details yet!” concludes, Jeremy.