FEATURE ARTICLES

Outbreaks of so-called winter vomiting disease, caused by norovirus, have a significant impact on health services at a time when they are least able to bear the strain. Now, rapid diagnostics from R-Biopharm Rhône have come to the rescue.

Requesting tests from pathology departments based at Barnsley and Rotherham District General Hospitals, South Yorkshire, has been revolutionised by new order-communications software. Sunquest's Integrated Clinical Environment (ICE) system eliminates delays when booking in samples, optimises workflow and improves information gathering on patient samples.

Micropix is an independent microscope and associated accessories vendor. As such, it has expertise in the hardware it sells, as a professional microscope system can be customised in hundreds of ways. However, there are some basic principles of microscopy that can be applied across a range of applications, and this article aims to give an insight into how to maximise the performance of your current microscope equipment and what to look for when purchasing new systems. It will also explore what Micropix considers to be the two most significant innovations in microscopy over the past few years, and these are light-emitting diode (LED) illumination and the digital microscope camera.

A Roche Managed Laboratory Service is predicted to save Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust at least £2.5million over next seven years, and provide half a million people with enhanced pathology services.

The past 12 months have been busy for R-Biopharm Rhône, following the opening of its new facility in Scotland. Here, Pathology in Practice reports on a relative newcomer to microbiology.

The Beckman Coulter approach to Lean processing is beginning to deliver productivity and safety benefits throughout pathology, as Michelle Normington explains. Introducing Lean principles into the hospital laboratory can increase speed, efficiency and quality. The system offers a very practical approach to identifying and eliminating waste, described by the Japanese term ‘muda’. Originally developed for Toyota to improve manufacturing processes, the principles have evolved into a powerful system that can be applied to pathology services worldwide.

Many immunohistochemistry methods for HER2 oncoprotein expression are semi-automated, but introduction of manual steps can lead to variability and unnecessary confirmatory testing. Here, Anthony Gledhill, discusses the implementation of a fully automated test kit that offers the laboratory a more reliable and consistent screening method.

A short period of diarrhoea following foreign travel from which one recovers reasonably quickly, is often dismissed as “something I ate”. However, some infections are waterborne diseases and can require hospitalisation or may prove fatal in the immunocompromised. Here, Michelle Holland looks at Giardia and Cryptosporidium.

Space travel was the theme of the recent annual Ortho Clinical Diagnostics immunohaematology user meeting held, at the National Space Centre in Leicester. Pathology in Practice reports on a close encounter of the transfusion kind.

As Sterilin celebrates its 50th birthday, Alison Smith looks back at the company’s strong pioneering heritage in the field of single-use laboratory disposables and how this has provided the perfect springboard for the future.

Over recent years the boundaries between pathology disciplines has become blurred, with virology being an excellent example of the benefits of shared technology, staff and skills. This trend was one feature of a recent Roche meeting, as Jeanette Marchant reports.

High-throughput ADVIA 2400 and ADVIA 1800 chemistry systems have reached new levels of productivity with the introduction of innovative new concentrated reagent test wedges. ADVIA clinical chemistry systems are the system of choice for many core pathology services. Their fast cycle speeds, low water usage, open-channel capability and assay menu capacity allow them to serve laboratory requirements ranging from district general hospitals through to multisite networks processing 10,000 specimens per day or more.

At the Human Protein Atlas project’s Rudbeck Laboratory, the Thermo Scientific Autostainer 480 has improved quality and reproducibility while increasing reliability and throughput, as Peter Brooks and Kenneth Wester explain.

Last year, a top London foundation trust entered into a partnership with Serco to provide an innovative and world-leading pathology service that promises to be the model for others to follow. Almost 18 months on, here is the view from Lambeth Palace Road.

Historically, the majority of tissue processing in histopathology has taken place overnight, limiting workflow flexibility. Now, the incorporation of ultrasonic technology promises to cut processing times significantly, as Neil Catlett explains.

ThinPrep cervical screening has taken a further step forward with installations of Hologic’s Integrated Imagers and ThinPrep imaging systems. Positive feedback is now arriving from early users. In the UK and Ireland there are now 17 Hologic ThinPrep Imager-enabled laboratories. The ThinPrep Integrated Imager, Hologic’s next-generation technology, represents the latest innovation in cervical screening by combining proven ThinPrep imaging technology and slide review into a single, convenient standalone device. This exciting new product allows laboratories of all sizes to benefit from the clinical advantages of ThinPrep imaging.

Current infection control focus is on surgical site infection and how it can be minimised. Here, James Beaves explains how cutting-edge products from Oxoid have an important role to play. Despite appropriate pre-and post-operative decontamination practices and implementation of infection prevention and control techniques in theatre, surgical site infections (SSIs) are the second most common type of adverse event occurring in hospitalised patients.

Ever since the Institute organised its first scientific meeting over 80 years ago, input from the commercial sector has always played a vital role in success, and last year’s Biomedical Science Congress was no exception.

Sterilin has set world standards for quality, reliability and user safety in the field of single-use laboratory plastics for the past 50 years. Now it leads the way by being the first to offer a range of 95 kPa-validated disposable containers for the transportation of clinical specimens. Sian Hayman tells us more. With more and more biological samples being transported through normal mailing systems, using different forms of transportation (from bikes to aeroplanes), the containers used to carry these samples are subject to increasingly tighter transport regulations. The requirements can vary depending on the mode of transport and the classification of samples.

In the wake of recent developments in the area of nurse prescribing of blood components, Pathology in Practice recently talked to two leading nurse professionals at the forefront of this initiative. At last year’s British Blood Transfusion Society (BBTS) Annual Scientific Meeting in Manchester, Liz Pirie and Jan Green launched the much-awaited framework document outlining guidance for nurses and midwives wishing to extend their role to prescribe blood components for transfusion.