FEATURE ARTICLES

Dr Neil Bentley OBE offers a personal reflection on the impact of rapid diagnostics and antimicrobial resistance testing from the blood culture bench.

The new ISO 15189 standard for medical laboratories was published 12 months ago, and is well into a three-year transition period, with inspections under the new standard set to begin soon. Dr David Ricketts – one of the new standard’s authors – writes for Pathology in Practice on the main changes, and what they mean for the delivery of pathology services.

It has been long established that circulatory and vascular changes play a significant role in long-term complications of diabetes. David Norcliffe and David Manuel explore how clinical viscosity testing could play a role in the care pathways of diabetes patients.

Often resistant to antifungal treatments, as well as being difficult to identify, Candida auris is a type of yeast that can cause severe illness, especially for vulnerable patients in hospitals and nursing homes. Thanks to advances in PCR testing and strain typing technology, early and accurate identification is assisting in controlling outbreaks, explains Markus Meyer.

With the COVID-19 pandemic shining a spotlight on diagnostics and biomedical science, the IBMS implemented a plan to capitalise and to give the profession a voice. IBMS Chief Executive David Wells writes for Pathology in Practice on the significant progress made by the Institute over the past two years, and its ambitions for the future.

There can be few medical scientists who have not heard of HeLa cells; the cultured cell line derived from the biopsy of a glandular cervical cancer from an American woman named Henrietta Lacks. The full history both of the lady and her immortal cells is charted eloquently by Rebecca Skloot in her book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Here, some 70 years since the tissue was taken, Pathology in Practice Science Editor Brian Nation compiles a small selection of recent research undertaken using HeLa cells.

Immunohistochemistry is a vital tool in the classification of skin lesions. Here, Rasiyan Salih and colleagues explore and assess the value of double labelling for PRAME and Melan A expression as an improved marker for slow Mohs margin assessment of lentigo maligna.

The value of digital pathology is widely recognised, but quantifying the benefits so far has been challenging. Now, Source LDPath has introduced a new tool to model the impact on digital pathology services on a specific hospital or department. This Health Economic Model serves to estimate the value of implementing a digital pathology workflow.

Reticulocyte haemoglobin content is an automated cell counting parameter that can deliver extra information with clinical utility in the investigation of iron deficiency. Here, Yvonne Hector, Barbara De la Salle and NHS colleagues in Plymouth report on a recent pilot external quality assessment exercise undertaken by UK NEQAS Haematology.

In this first of a series of articles, Stephen MacDonald returns to the topic of assessing measurement uncertainty in the clinical laboratory, and provides an update on the current situation and provides a taster of what will be covered in future articles.

Sheri Scott looks at the growing need for sustainability education for laboratory professionals pre- and post-registration to help the biomedical science profession be greener, and how sustainability can be incorporated into Quality Improvement processes in the laboratory.

Three years on from NHS Wales becoming the first nation within the NHS to recommend DPYD screening to predict a negative response to treatment for all cancer patients prescribed fluoropyrimidine therapy, the All Wales Medical Genomics Service has highlighted some key clinical findings, as well as providing valuable recommendations for institutions or authorities who could benefit from establishing their own service.

Pathology in Practice editor Andy Myall presents a quick wrap up of the 2023 IBMS Congress, including some thoughts on the event and the Institute’s key activities from Chief Executive David Wells.

Signify Research casts an eye into the future of AI in clinical digital pathology following the publication of its most recent market analysis. To have the greatest clinical impact AI vendors must evolve to meet the demands of tomorrow’s customers. But, asks Imogen Fitt, what will this evolution look like?

The recent BOND-PRIME launch by Leica Biosystems introduces technological advancements to help laboratories maintain staining quality with increased workloads. Novel staining technology ensures even tissue coverage, with active fluid control and airgapped exchange to minimise the risk of carryover; while the system incorporates all aspects of Universal Access offering ultimate flexibility.

Over the last few years, we’ve all witnessed the toll that overwhelming caseloads of COVID-19, influenza A/B and RSV testing can have on healthcare settings. The resulting push for more accurate and discriminatory methods to aid the management of patients presenting with respiratory and/or flu-like symptoms has highlighted the importance of developing a test panel that is both efficient and clinically relevant, says Dr Andrew Birnie.

The cost/benefit ratio of digital pathology is particularly hard to quantify – especially with so many variables in play for NHS trusts and laboratory groups. Now, however, Source LDPath has introduced a new Health Economic Model to its offering, which the company says will make the departmental benefits of incorporating a digital pathology workflow crystal clear.

The 2022 Annual Report from the Serious Hazards of Transfusion (SHOT) scheme has been published recently, once again collecting and analysing anonymised information on serious adverse events and reactions in blood transfusion from all healthcare organisations. Here SHOT Laboratory Incident Specialist Victoria Tuckley summarises its key points and recommendations.

ISO 15189:2022 arrived in November 2022 although its impact is not fully understood with individual organisations looking to conduct a full gap analysis against the ISO 15189:2012 and 22870:2016. Lead biomedical scientist Tony Cambridge looks at what the changes mean for those involved in point-of-care testing.

Kidney function tests on urine and blood are a ubiquitous feature of the workload in clinical chemistry laboratories. Disease often has no symptoms until damage to the kidney is at an advanced stage, hence pathology testing is a vital service. Here, Pathology in Practice Science Editor Brian Nation compiles a small selection of recent research interest in nephrology.