Digital slides

Last updated 12/10/2026

If your laboratory scans glass slides into whole slide images (WSI), you can link them to cases in VipLIMS. Pathologists then open the right slides straight from the case, without searching for them in a separate system.

How it works

VipLIMS stores links, not images. Your slide images stay on your own image server or digital pathology platform. VipLIMS keeps a slide ID for each slide and builds a web address from a URL template you set once. When a pathologist selects a slide, the viewer opens in a new browser tab.

This means:

• you do not need to move or copy large image files into VipLIMS;
• your existing image server and viewer keep working as they do now;
• access to the images is controlled by your image server, not by VipLIMS.

An embedded slide viewer inside VipLIMS is on our roadmap. It is not available yet.

Before you start

You will need:

• the Administrator role in VipLIMS;
• the web address your image server uses to open a single slide, and where the slide's ID appears in it. Your image server supplier or IT team can tell you this;
• a test slide ID you can use to check the set-up.

Step 1: Find your viewer's link format

Open any slide in your image server's viewer and look at the address bar. Find the part of the address that identifies the slide. For example:

https://slides.example.org/view?slide=ABC123

Here, ABC123 is the slide ID.

Step 2: Set the URL template

1. Open Settings and find the digital slides settings.
2. Turn on digital slides for your laboratory, if it is not already on.
3. Enter the URL template, replacing the slide ID with {slideId}. Using the example above, the template is https://slides.example.org/view?slide={slideId}.
4. Save.

Template examples

Always use an https:// address so the link is encrypted.

Step 3: Attach slide IDs to a case

1. Open the case.
2. Go to the slides area of the case or of a specific specimen.
3. Add the slide ID for each slide. You can attach slides to the case as a whole or to an individual specimen, for example specimen A.
4. Save.

Step 4: Open a slide

1. Open the case.
2. Select the slide you want.
3. The slide opens in your image server's viewer in a new tab.

If your image server asks you to sign in, that is expected. VipLIMS does not pass sign-in details to your image server.

Step 5: Test the set-up

Before using digital slides for live work:

1. Attach your test slide ID to a demo or test case.
2. Open it and confirm the correct slide appears.
3. Ask a pathologist to check it from their own computer, so you know it works on the network they use.

Good practice

• Avoid patient identifiers in slide IDs. Slide IDs become part of a web address, which can appear in browser history and server logs. Use the scanner's own ID or the case number and block reference instead of a patient's name.
• Check access on the image server. Make sure only the right people can open slides there, because VipLIMS does not control access to the images.
• Validate the workflow. If you use digital slides for primary diagnosis, your laboratory is responsible for validating the whole digital pathology workflow under the standards that apply to you.

Troubleshooting

Related articles

• Case workflow
• Writing and authorising reports
• Roles and permissions
• Getting started