Events in 2023

This session provides an overview of the key changes to the ISO 15189 standard and explains the UKAS transition process including deadlines and actions to be taken by accredited organisations.

The same session is being run on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday to ensure as many delegates as possible are able to attend.

Highlights from the 2022 Annual SHOT Report: lessons learnt and learning from excellence

Equality, diversity and inclusion: optional extra or innate necessity? (why bother)

Despite major advances in investigating haematological abnormalities, the blood film can still be crucial in diagnosis and patient management. The first major role is the validation of an abnormal blood count and, when it is found to be invalid, finding an explanation for factitious results. Factitiously low platelet counts and factitiously high MCVs are well recognized examples.

When the count is found to be valid, an explanation might be revealed. A blood film may indicate a likely diagnosis within minutes; this can be of vital importance as in acute promyelocytic leukaemia, thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura, Burkitt lymphoma and certain infections. Sometimes the blood film suggests an uncommon or rare condition the diagnosis of which is important but would otherwise be delayed or elusive.

We are living through a world of change. COVID has had a long-lasting impact on how the next generation learn and the skills they have when entering higher education. Black Lives Matter emphasises once again the barriers to learning faced by so many marginalised members of our communities. An inclusive curriculum aims at eliminating barriers by embracing difference and fostering a strong sense of belonging. It enriches the learning experience to enable students to develop empathy, cultural competence, and responsibility for social cohesion.

ISO15189:2012 had reached its periodic review date and there was international consensus that it needed revision. The new version was published on 6th December 2022 and there are some key changes which include an emphasis on a patient-focused approach and to promote the welfare of patients - i.e. putting the patient at the heart of the service. There is also more emphasis on a risk-based approach to the Quality Management system. In addition, ISO 22870 (POCT) has been incorporated into ISO 15189:2022.

This presentation will review POCT definitions, highlight key considerations for currently accredited POCT services and also for organisations considering applying for accreditation to include (or extend) POCT in their scope.

POCT is referenced implicitly throughout ISO 15189:2022 and with additional distinct requirements as an Annex A.

The presentation will discuss generic POCT services, and highlight considerations on both current POCT services and also emphasise considerations for planning new POCT services, and that overall, when compared with ISO 22870:2016, things have not changed as much as one would think. Principles are similar, and POCT could even be considered as another specialty within pathology, regardless of where it is or managed from.

Complement genetic testing

This presentation will:

Summarise the key points within the BSH guideines for blood grouping and antibody testing in pregnancy
Give an overview of the main updates to the BSH guideline for blood grouping and antibody testing in pregnancy

Histopathology has numerous stages in the production of a digital image and its subsequent use. Each of the stages can introduce variations that are compounded resulting in a net variation in image quality for nominally the same tissue. Humans are tolerant of variation so this variation in quality has minimal impact on outcomes, which are additionally validated by EQA services.

But AI is in some cases being negatively impacted by variation and highlights the need for quality metrics and subsequently standards for each stage, where possible. But currently there are few independent QC tools for digital histopathology. This presentation will present the results of our work in NPIC were we have developed QC tools for staining, digitisation and display in digital histopathology.

Health inequalities are unfair and avoidable differences in health across the population, and between different groups within society. Health inequalities arise because of the conditions in which we are born, grow, live, work and age. These conditions influence our opportunities for good health, and how we think, feel and act, and this shapes our mental health, physical health, and wellbeing. The COVID-19 shone harsh light on the pre-existing health inequalities which persist in our society. It has become increasingly clear that COVID-19 has had a disproportionate impact on many who already face disadvantage and discrimination. The impact of the virus has been particularly detrimental on people living in areas of high socio-economic deprivation, on people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic minority communities and those with a learning disability.

In England, there is a 19-year gap in healthy life expectancy (whether we experience health conditions or diseases that impact how long we live in good health) between the most and least affluent areas of the country, with people in the most deprived neighbourhoods, certain ethnic minority and inclusion health groups getting multiple long-term health conditions 10 to 15 years earlier than the least deprived communities, spending more years in ill health and dying sooner.

The Biomedical Sciences have a significant and pivotal role to play in narrowing the health inequalities gap through Research, Innovation and Life Sciences and its extensive reach across clinical practice within the NHS.