Library support for Philips iSyntax format

The Philips iSyntax format is not directly supported by common open source digital pathology libraries.  Currently, in order to use iSyntax files outside of the Philips environment one must either use the iSyntax SDK or convert iSyntax files to a supported format such as TIFF.  The iSyntax SDK Terms & Conditions are problematic for open tools and the conversion of files is very computationally and storage expensive.

Our team, lead by Alexandr Virodov, is on the lookout for collaborators with an interest in developing iSyntax support for OpenSlide, Bio-Formats, and cuCIM libraries.  Efforts to support iSyntax in OpenSlide are already well underway thanks to supporting iSyntax code developed by Pieter Valkema as part of amspath/slidescape.  The following video demonstrates the support of iSyntax files in Digital Slide Archive (DSA) using our OpenSlide code:

If you have interest in this effort, including beta testing this code, please let us know (Alexandr.Virodov@uky.edu or cody@uky.edu).  Our intent is to initially push iSyntax support into mainline OpenSlide and then expand to other libraries as needed.

This work was presented at the AMIA 2023 Informatics Summit: Abstract, Slides.

(The test slide file used is obtained from https://gitlab.com/BioimageInformaticsGroup/openphi, another project aiming to address iSyntax support using the Philips SDK.)