How Perseverance, Grit And Hologic’s AI-powered Technology Helped Bring Iceland’s Cervical Cancer Screening Back Home
“We’re doing this for our women,” said Dr. Ingibjörg Guðmundsdóttir (second from right) shown with her colleagues at Landspítali Háskólasjúkrahús and Hologic team members. “When you’re working for the health of your own community, it makes you push harder. You want to do the best job possible because these are your people.”
This is the story of how Dr. Guðmundsdóttir and her small and relentlessly determined team rebuilt Iceland’s cervical cancer screening program, with the help of Hologic’s AI-powered Genius™ Digital Diagnostics System.
For more than 60 years, Iceland’s cervical cancer screening program was led by the country’s Cancer Society, where Dr. Ingibjörg Guðmundsdóttir had worked for decades as a cytologist. But in December 2020, the program underwent significant changes: The Cancer Society closed, and the processing of cervical cell samples was moved to the public healthcare system.
When capacity issues arose, a decision was made to outsource cervical cancer screening to a laboratory in Denmark, which created more challenges. Bottlenecks in the processing of patient samples left thousands of women waiting weeks to months for results — and in some cases, samples were lost in transit.
“It was chaos,” Dr. Guðmundsdóttir recalls. “The system we had built over decades was suddenly gone. Women had to retake tests, and the delays were unacceptable. We had lost control of something so critical to women’s health.”
A United Movement
Frustrated by the delays and determined to restore the cervical cancer screening program, the people of Iceland banded together. A grassroots social media group advocating for change grew rapidly. Thousands of residents signed a petition called “Aðför að heilsu kvenna” — or "Women's Health Under Attack” — backed by leading experts and organizations.
“There were many women — and a lot of men as well — who were very active in collecting names and raising awareness around these issues,” says Dr. Guðmundsdóttir. Their voices reached the government, and in early 2022, cervical cancer screening was brought back to Iceland to the country’s only university hospital: Landspítali Háskólasjúkrahús.
But by then, a new problem had emerged: There weren’t enough trained cytology screeners and pathologists with experience in cytology at the hospital to review the thousands of samples being taken, as many of the people who had worked at the Cancer Society in Iceland had moved on to new positions when the organization closed. This left just two cytologists — Dr. Guðmundsdóttir and Dr. Jurate Ásmundsson.
A Visionary Solution
Dr. Guðmundsdóttir knew that rebuilding the cervical cancer screening program would need more than just bringing screening back to Iceland. It required innovation. That’s when she and Dr. Ásmundsson turned to the Genius Digital Diagnostics System.
Dr. Ingibjörg Guðmundsdóttir and Dr. Jurate Ásmundsson.
Born out of an ambitious team’s vision to digitize cytology and make cancer screening more sensitive and efficient using artificial intelligence (AI), the Genius Digital Diagnostics System arrived on the European market in November 2020 and became the first FDA-cleared AI-powered digital cytology system in the U.S. in early 2024.
With the Genius Digital Diagnostics System, glass slides are digitally imaged and an AI algorithm is applied to pinpoint the cells that cytologists and pathologists should review. It streamlines the process, allowing experts to focus their time and energy where it matters most. The system uses a process called volumetric imaging to take one pass over a slide, capturing 14 focal planes — or layers — and merges them into a single layer, creating a two-dimensional representation of the slide with exceptional clarity.
“I wrote a letter to our hospital leadership explaining why we needed this technology,” says Dr. Guðmundsdóttir. “Given our small team here, I knew that the Genius system could help us prioritize the most urgent cases while maintaining the highest standards.”
In February 2024, the hospital purchased its first Genius Digital Diagnostics System. “When the system arrived, I started working with it very soon after,” says Dr. Guðmundsdóttir. “It was incredible. I’ve spent years manually screening samples, and this technology made everything faster and more precise. It’s like having an extra set of eyes that never get tired.”
A Future Built on Innovation
Today, Iceland’s cervical cancer screening program is back on track, serving thousands of women each year.
“For the first time in my 20 years in the field, I am meeting a new generation of doctors who are interested in gynecological cytology,” Dr. Ingibjörg Guðmundsdóttir. “If you have never worked in this area, it’s probably difficult to imagine how much time and effort traditional screening with a microscope requires. Having Genius handle that is indescribable.”
Dr. Guðmundsdóttir sees the Genius system as more than just a tool; it’s a symbol of resilience and progress.
“We’ve proven that even a small laboratory like ours can lead the way in applying the latest innovations to improve patient care,” Dr. Guðmundsdóttir says, noting that she hopes the use of AI is eventually expanded into other areas of pathology. “The future is bright.”
Learn more about the Genius Digital Diagnostics System.