The nationwide network and registry of histo- and cytopathology in the Netherlands

The following is a brief description. For more information: call or mail.
In the Netherlands, since 1971 a foundation (PALGA) has been active, which has developed a system of central archiving of all reports generated by all (58) Pathology departments (academic and non-academic) in the country.

PALGA

  • an acronym, litterally translated: pathological anatomy national automated archive.
  • a non-profit foundation, members are all Pathology departments.
  • a system developed by pathologists.
  • a system for pathologists and their departments.

Contents national database

  • abstracts of the pathology reports; an abstract consists of
  • encrypted patient identification,
  • a summary of the report
  • diagnostic terms in line with SNOMED terminology.
  • about 53 million abstracts of more than 11 million patients are stored.
  • each year more than 2 million abstracts are added.

National health care projects

PALGA facilitates several national health care projects, e.g.:
Dutch Cancer registration, Cervical and Breast Cancer Screening Programs, Health Care Evaluation and Epidemiological Reserch Survey.

Software package Pathology department

Instrumental in the process of linking all pathology departments to the national database has been the development of a software package.

This package :

  • supports the processing and local archiving of patient data, including the complete pathology reports.
  • sends abstracts to the national database on a daily basis.
  • provides ample on-line services for local and national retrieval purposes:
    •  patient history (patient care)
    •  research.
  • has an open architecture, which provides high flexbility and optimal possibilities for linkage with all kind of systems, e.g. :
    •  hospital systems
    •  GP-communications systems
    •  speech recognition systems

 

Publication:
An Outline of the PALGA system and its main usage:
Pathology databanking and biobanking in The Netherlands, a central role for PALGA, the nationwide histopathology and cytopathologie data network and archive (from: Cellular Oncology 29 (2007))