The U.S. Patent Office has granted a patent to Leica Biosystems for Real-Time Focusing (RTF) technology (U.S. patent 9,841,590). The technology is designed to enable fast, high-volume line scanning of anatomic pathology slides.

“RTF technology dramatically improves slides’ scanning speed while delivering excellent optical focus. Extremely short scan times can now be achieved at 40× magnification,” said Jerome Clavel, general manager of Leica Biosystems Pathology Imaging. “We have been working internally with RTF technology for quite some time. We will be integrating and commercializing RTF into our next-generation digital pathology platform shortly.”

Leica Biosystems has been testing RTF at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and other institutions worldwide to fine-tune its application in a high-volume laboratory setting.

“We are excited about the potential of RTF to significantly scale up digital pathology operations by moving high-volume and high-throughput scanning into the histology lab,” said Dr. W. Dean Wallace, a professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. “By implementing RTF technology into our workflow, we will soon be able to take the next crucial step in the development of digital pathology.”

Leica Biosystems has a large, global R&D footprint, with 12 development centers. Its dedicated teams of engineers develop innovative technologies with the goal of enabling pathologists to efficiently make highly confident, same-day diagnoses. Aperio Technologies, now part of Leica Biosystems, previously introduced high-speed line scanning into digital pathology, and holds a comprehensive patent portfolio for the technology in key geographies. Aperio digital pathology products using RTF have not been cleared for clinical diagnostic use in the U.S.