Events in 2023

Albert Norman Keynote Opening Address

The IBMS Certificates of Achievement are designed as gateway qualifications to reflect the training needs of people working as Assistant Practitioners or Associate Practitioners in laboratory services.

In this ‘show and tell’ session designed for trainees, training officers, training managers or laboratory managers, we will outline the structure of the Certificates of achievement and give some information on the support and guidance that the IBMS currently offer for completing both parts of this qualification. We will interactively explore how the resources available as a result of our recent collaboration with LearnSci can supplement the existing training matter you have in your laboratory, to help you scaffold and deliver engaging, supportive and enjoyable training experiences to those completing this qualification.

We will also canvass the views of everyone present in this talk to better understand the needs of each group and to gain insight into the resources and support that attendees would find useful, to help the IBMS drive the evolution of this qualification by ensuring it remains relevant and useful to practitioners.

The new Certificate of Expert Practice in Laboratory IT and Clinical Informatics

Complement testing

Non-melanoma skin cancers (NMSC) are on the rise, with around 156,000 cases diagnosed annually in the United Kingdom. Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is the most predominant form that is encountered, and cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC) accounts for 20% of all non-melanoma skin cancers. Although the vast majority of non-melanoma skin cancers have a good prognosis and can be cured by surgical intervention, they can cause the destruction of local tissue architecture due to tumour growth. Moreover, a small subset of tumours have poorer outcomes with metastases and mortality.

The underlying biological mechanisms governing a higher risk of recurrence, metastasis, and death remain poorly understood due to a lack of accurate risk stratification. Risk prediction is important in the management of NMSC, as it informs which patients require imaging, how frequently imaging should be performed and how frequently patients should be reviewed. It also informs which patients will benefit from wider surgical resection, adjuvant radiotherapy or sentinel lymph node biopsy. In the future, there is a role for the use of adjuvant immunotherapy for patients with particularly high-risk tumours. This presentation aims to highlight the use of single-cell and spatial transcriptomics analysis approaches in comprehensively mapping the localisation of the different cellular subpopulations in non-melanoma skin cancers. The ultimate aim is to develop better diagnostic tools and markers to predict patient risk status, which will lead to better clinical outcomes.

Following on from a talk given last year on the Precision AMR Project, this presentation will look at the incorporation of WGS and genotypic methods vs phenotypic methods and how they can impact on diagnostic laboratory practices, antibiotic reporting and prescribing.

This presentation follows on from the research on the Precision AMR project and discusses how this can be translated into routine practice. Also looking at potential new workflows that may be incorporated into laboratory's to support clinicians and infection control.

Transplant Assessment and Relative Opportunity Tool (TAROT) for Renal Transplantation: Improving the chance of transplant for immunologically complex patients

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

Quality issues and accreditation for andrology services