FEATURE ARTICLES

Osmolality testing is a powerful screening tool which provides quick and accurate diagnoses for a wide range of disorders. With continuing pressure on laboratories and their staff, a new osmometer with increased automation, ease of use, and workflow flexibility also offers further features to minimise errors and simplify the testing process.

This summer a range of healthcare professionals, sepsis nurses and phlebotomists attended two ‘Saving Time Changes Lives’ events, organised by Becton Dickinson. Taking place during National Pathology Week, this year’s theme ‘Pathologists and Patients’ was highlighted with the topics at the event covering the importance of a quality diagnostic pathway with a risk-based approach to blood cultures, with a comprehensive approach to patient care. Here, Bruce Caldwell reviews the two events.

Advances in technology mean that moving from microscopes to digital alternatives can now be achieved without sacrificing image quality. But this isn’t about the technology. Professor Gina Zini reflects on the key benefits of digital developments, including better quality screening, saved time for morphologists, better clinical collaboration, improved training, and sharing expertise.

In the UK and Europe, too many cases of gastric cancer are still coming to light at a later, less treatable stage. In contrast, high-risk Asian countries have shown real progress in significantly improving outcomes by screening populations for early signs of the disease. Tamara Matysiak-Budnik discusses how we can learn from the progress that has been made in high-incidence countries, and explores a multi-step testing approach.

The repeated replication of a focused segment of genetic material by polymerising nucleotides is just one concept applicable to numerous fields in modern molecular biology and related sciences. Here, Pathology in Practice Science Editor Brian Nation compiles a small selection of recent research interest in this rapidly developing field.

Royal Derby Hospital operates robust point-of-care testing as part of its virus management programme, and implementation of year-round respiratory syncytial virus testing last year resulted in the discovery of an unexpected summer surge in cases, as Yusuf Gray explains.

With increasing demands on healthcare technology, choosing a cloud-based solution over on-premises infrastructure allows enhanced security, seamless accessibility as well as extra flexibility in the future. Olivier Goudon outlines the capabilities of cloud architecture for healthcare processes, while also meeting the considerable challenges of GDPR when handling patient data.

Annette Thomas offers a personal reflection on her role in setting up and developing point-of-care testing services in Wales, culminating in the establishment of Wales’s National POCT Strategy earlier this year highlighting the vision for the delivery of services along with the creation of a more formal Strategy Board.

After a long career in the NHS as a Biomedical Scientist, Chloe Ashford-Smith moved to a health consultancy role with professional services firm KPMG. Here she explains how her new position allows her to collaborate with other experienced health professionals, working as a team to support the NHS and ‘speak the same language’ as their clients.

Stago’s new high-throughput, fully automated coagulation analyser delivers precision, speed and productivity as demonstrated in recently published studies. The company has worked in blood-based diagnostics for over 60 years, becoming a preferred commercial partner to coagulation laboratory specialists.

The future of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) depends on what we do today. Better diagnostics, infection prevention, and surveillance are vital factors in the fight against AMR, argues Greg Quinn.

Clinisys’ annual conference at The Belfry saw a record number of national experts, pathologists, and IT leaders gather to discuss how change drives innovation in pathology and innovation drives further change. Matthew Fouracre reports from a busy – and optimistic – two days.

Evaluating lupus nephritis presents significant challenges, with pathological evaluation requiring the participation of experienced pathologists, as well as being timeconsuming and prone to human error and misjudgement. Here, Wei Juan Wong explains how a combination of whole-slide imaging and artificial intelligence accelerates this important work.

The rapidly growing diagnostics market represents a unique opportunity for laboratory technology vendors. Sally-Anne Whybrow looks at the sales enablement techniques giving vendors a competitive advantage.

The adoption of digital pathology continues to see a remarkable surge in the post- COVID-19 era, with pathologists worldwide embracing the technology. Here, Dr Melissa Alexander, a practising pathologist and Medical Director for Leica Biosystems, shares her experience of transitioning from conventional pathology to digital pathology, including the challenges faced during the transition, but also the advantages of remote practice, collaboration, and quick second opinions.

Liquid biopsy is a minimally invasive approach to determine the presence of malignant tumours, looking for evidence of tumour cells and cancer cell DNA circulating in blood, and potentially also in body fluids such as urine, sputum and saliva. Here, Pathology in Practice Science Editor Brian Nation compiles a small selection of recent research interest in this fascinating field.

The Anatomical Pathology laboratory at the Cardiff and Vale University Health Board services the needs of a sizable local population, as well as specialist services further into Wales and other surrounding areas. Here Pathology in Practice learns how a commercial partnership has enabled significant improvements in reducing errors and lost samples by implementing new systems for sample tracking and storage.

September 2023 will see the return of the biennial IBMS Congress event to the International Convention Centre in Birmingham. The focus once again will be on the very best that biomedical science and commercial colleagues have to offer. Here, Pathology in Practice provides the second of three scientific programme previews in the run up to this important four-day event.

In a post-pandemic world, it is perhaps counter-intuitive to suggest that viral agents could contribute to medicine’s fight against the rise of antimicrobial resistance. However, the use of bacteriophages against bacterial infection predates the antibiotic era, so what are some of the opportunities currently being explored? Here, Pathology in Practice Science Editor Brian Nation compiles a small selection of recent research interest.

The fifteenth iteration in the biennial IBMS Congress series will return to the International Convention Centre in Birmingham in a little over three months. The focus once again will be on the very best that biomedical science and commercial colleagues have to offer. Here, Pathology in Practice provides the first of three further previews in the run up to this important four-day event.