Nigeria recorded an estimated 152,261 new cancer cases and 90,795 cancer deaths in 2024, according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer. Against that burden, roughly 150 pathologists serve a population of over 200 million, a figure cited by Prof. Francis Faduyile at EKOPATH ’26 in Lagos. Digital pathology in Nigeria is the practical response to that arithmetic, and it framed the week ISN Medical spent hosting Leica Biosystems, one of our principal OEM partners.
What digital pathology actually changes
Leica Biosystems defines digital pathology as the acquisition, management, sharing and interpretation of pathology information in a digital environment. Glass slides are scanned by automated whole slide imaging systems, held in an image management system, and read on a screen instead of under a microscope.
The change is in how pathology is delivered, not only in the hardware. A digitised slide can be reviewed from another city, sent for a second opinion without couriering glass, archived without fading, and analysed with software that quantifies biomarker expression. A physical constraint becomes a connectivity question.
Why the pathologist shortage is the argument
Prof. Fatimah AbdulKareem, WADIAP President, told EKOPATH ’26 that Nigeria has trained hundreds of pathologists but fewer than 200 practise in the country. Those specialists concentrate in a small number of urban centres, so a patient in a state without a resident histopathologist waits on logistics rather than on science.
Nigerian evidence already shows what closing that distance does. A telepathology programme run by Jos University Teaching Hospital and the University of Lagos Teaching Hospital with Northwestern University scanned more than 200 cervical cancer slides and reported turnaround falling from a few months for inter-institutional slide review to three to five days.
What we did during the week
EKOPATH ’26. We joined the 16th Annual General Meeting and Scientific Conference of the West African Division of the International Academy of Pathology, held in Lagos under the theme “Future-Proofing Pathology in West Africa: Integrating Quality, Innovation, and Regional Synergy”.
Field visits and market survey. We visited laboratories across Nigeria to document current workflows, sample volumes, and readiness for digital transformation.
Strategic business reviews. Working sessions with Leica Biosystems on market progress, customer feedback, and our go-to-market approach.
Engagement with leading institutions. Discussions with key opinion leaders and top laboratories on what adoption would require in their specific settings.
What laboratories told us
Awareness of digital pathology is ahead of adoption. Interest was consistent across the institutions we visited, and several are prepared to move once the operating questions are settled.
Those questions are not abstract. The Nigerian telepathology programme cited above named its own obstacles plainly: scanner cost of about $14,500 per unit, power supply requiring generator backup, image upload times of 10 to 30 minutes on available bandwidth, and substantial training needs for pathologists, laboratory scientists, and IT staff. Any credible adoption plan for a Nigerian laboratory has to answer each of those, not just the scanner line item.
Where ISN Medical stands
Our position is that technology supply is the smallest part of this. Market education, structured training, infrastructure planning, and after-sales support are what determine whether a scanner produces reported cases or sits idle. That is the work we are committing to with Leica Biosystems: helping laboratories assess readiness honestly, build the workflow around the equipment, and keep it running.
Prof. AbdulKareem also addressed the anxiety that artificial intelligence will displace pathologists, stating that the technology complements rather than replaces specialist work. That reflects what we heard in the field. Digital pathology in Nigeria extends the reach of the pathologists we have; it does not substitute for training more of them.
Talk to us
If your laboratory is assessing whole slide imaging, digital workflow, or telepathology, we can walk through readiness, infrastructure, and training requirements with you. Contact the ISN Medical laboratory solutions team to start that conversation.