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Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever is the most widely distributed hard tick-borne disease in the world.

Different factors, such as a better knowledge of the disease, but also trade, modifications of the migratory bird routes and, probably, the climate change are favouring its increase.

The example of the emergence in Spain will be reviewed.

This talk will focus on how level 2 and level 4 apprenticeships can help to engage in widening participation and EDI agenda as well as create an entry level workforce pipeline and staff that can be grown through apprenticeship progression routes into the Biomedical science profession.

An overview of the UKTLC collaborators and history of the UKTLC. An introduction to the new standards and the evidence supporting these and the findings of the 2022 UKTLC survey.

Using accreditation to support the validity of test results: pre-examination requirements of ISO 15189:2022

The principles of validation and verification have long been established and laboratories are generally familiar with these although there remain some issues which are commonly seen within verification reports during assessments. Some of these require some further attention and discussion, including consideration of sample type, verification across multiple sites and approaches used when upgrading analysers. Alongside these common issues, ISO 15189:2022 has now been issued with assessments to become mandatory to the new standard from January 2024 and whilst the principles of validation and verification are generally unchanged, there are some differences which will require review of internal procedures and approaches to verification. Awareness of these changes will form a part of the presentation, along with issues commonly seen, being hoped these will promote some thought as to how laboratories can consider the local approaches used.

Leadership wellbeing is about cultivating an environment of care, for others around you but also importantly for yourself.

Taking an active approach on wellbeing leads to better communication, efficiency and ultimately higher performance. It has a huge impact on staff retention, allowing staff to feel seen and understood, and giving them the opportunity to explore their creativity. Wellbeing starts with self-reflection to understand individual obstacles. Creating a space to identify these, allows the member to respond appropriately, thereby not reacting immediately.

Discussing some helpful tips and taking part in a few activities, we hope that members will take some of these useful tools to their own areas to use.

What’s in the new precompatibility guidelines?

This session is aimed at staff who are on the front line of Pathology services. Those who are in sample reception, taking calls and frequently being the interface between Pathology and our users.

Human beings are built to size each other up quickly. These first impressions are influenced by a number of factors, such as facial shape, vocal inflection, attractiveness, and general emotional state. People tend to get attached to their initial impressions of others and find it very difficult to change their opinion, even when presented with lots of evidence to the contrary.

As a result, it’s important to be aware of how we come across to others during a first meeting. Then we can employ impression management skills—modulating any irritating traits and accentuating one's strengths—to ensure that people have a more favourable opinion of one. Everything from clothing style and posture to conversational topics can be adjusted to form a better first impression.

It takes a mere seven seconds to make a first impression. People thin-slice others based on how a person looks and sounds, more so than their explicit verbal statements. Often, someone's first impression is influenced by implicit attitudes of which they are unaware, which explains impulsive actions like giving special preference to those with physical beauty or more easily trusting a person who has a babyface. The observational powers (biases) of the observer are just as important as the qualities projected by the target, or person being judged, making these judgments a constant dance between objective information and selective signal-reading

This presentation will create awareness of our own and others first impressions and allow us consider how to make a good and lasting first impression.

A modular approach to the Specialist Portfolios

Promoting and supporting training and education is an integral part of the work of UK NEQAS. As such the online Digital Morphology for CPD scheme (DM) was introduced some years ago as a companion to our glass-slide blood films for morphology (BF) EQA scheme. DM has been very successful and registration currently stands at just over 4,000 participants. DM recently underwent a major change when it was moved to a new platform and is now hosted on the UK NEQAS Haematology EQATE system.

The new EQATE platform offers significant flexibility over the old and allows for the development of additional modules, for example the recently introduced Haemosiderin cytochemistry EQA. Other new modules and features are proposed with some actively under design and testing. This presentation will look at how Digital Morphology and the EQATE platform have evolved, where we are with regards to the currently available modules, some of the challenges we face and a look at some future developments.