Attending the 20th European Congress on Digital Pathology (ECDP) 2024 in Vilnius, Lithuania, was an enriching experience. Over three days, experts and professionals gathered to exchange knowledge, present innovative ideas, and network. Here are some highlights and personal insights from the event.

Day 1: Integrative Pathology and AI Applications

The conference began with a welcome from Arvydas Laurinavičius and Norman Zerbe. Richard Levenson's keynote on transitioning from whole-slide to no-slide imaging was particularly thought-provoking as he suggested innovative way for tissue imaging that did not require convention microscope or whole slide scanner, however, there is still room for improvement in that area. Sessions focused on integrating molecular and spatial pathology with AI. Highlights included Hannah Williams' work on spatial transcriptomics in colorectal cancer and Spyridon Bakas' research on detecting glioblastoma patterns. Naoko Tsuyama’s talk on AI interpretability for pathologists showcased AI's potential as a powerful tool.

Day 2: Sustainability and Interoperability

Discussions on the second day emphasized the importance of sustainable AI in pathology. The "Odd Couple" session highlighted unique partnerships, followed by talks on interoperability challenges. The "Digital Pathology Neighborhood" session offered global perspectives on digital pathology implementation, featuring Riyad El-Khoury and Abdulaziz Alajlan.

Day 3: Advanced AI Techniques

The final day featured poster presentations and a keynote by Faisal Mahmood on multimodal generative AI for pathology. Sessions delved into advanced machine learning techniques, with Milda Poceviciute’s presentation on addressing generalization challenges being particularly noteworthy. The conference concluded with a panel on leveraging European networks for research and patient benefit.

Contributions from Our Lab

Our lab was well-represented, with several members presenting their research:

• Nasir Rajpoot: Interpretable AI for Precision Histopathology (Nasir also chaired the “Virtual Pathology in Education” session and was active in Histofy booth in the industry section).
• Neda Zamanitajeddin (Myself): Benchmarking Domain Generalization Algorithms in Computational Pathology
• Mostafa Jahanifar: Exploring the Clinical Utility of AI in Mitosis Scoring for Breast Cancer
• Adam Shephard: ODYN: An AI-based Pipeline for Predicting Malignant Transformation in Oral Epithelial Dysplasia
• Mark Eastwood: Multi-task GNN Prediction in Breast Cancer using Deep Features and Cellular Composition Statistics
• Kesi Xu: Is Segment Anything Model Generalizable for Histology Images?

Attending and presenting at ECDP 2024 was a remarkable experience for our team, contributing significantly to our research in digital pathology.

Personal Insights

ECDP 2024 was an interesting experience, highlighting the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration and sustainability in digital pathology. The knowledge and connections gained will significantly contribute to my future research and professional development. Thank you, Vilnius, for an unforgettable experience!