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The undeniable growth of molecular pathology in biomedical science continues and is now an established discipline in its own right. At present, the IBMS offers a 'Certificate of Expert Practice', and to this will be added a 'Specialist Diploma', the latter consisting of a number of independent but linked modules.

Andrew's talk will be providing an overview of these two qualifications, and where they sit in the IBMS's qualifications structure.

The session will provide an overview of the Histopathology Reporting qualifications outlining the success so far and then will focus on the new limited scope Reporting qualification for those involved in Cervical Screening. It will provide guidance on the eligibility criteria for this qualification, the portfolio requirements and the support needed by candidates from colleagues in order to undertake the qualification.

NHS Long Term Workforce Plan

NHSE Diagnostic Transformation - progress to date and future ambition

Pathology Network Maturity - meeting the NHS Long Term Plan objective

Pathology Services in the Northern Ireland Health and Social Care (HSC) system face a range of challenges including increasing demand, recruitment and retention, aging information systems, rapidly evolving technology and changing quality requirements. The Northern Ireland Department of Health’s vision is for the delivery of modern, sustainable, world-class Pathology services through a single, regional HSC Pathology Services delivery vehicle capable of supporting safe, effective delivery of Clinical Services into the future for HSC Patients.

Stakeholder engagement and participation is viewed as critical for successful delivery of the Department’s vision. This presentation will describe how the Northern Ireland Health and Social Care (HSC) system is enabling Pathology stakeholders to design a preferred operating model for a regional Pathology Management Structure that will deliver key benefits for HSC Patients and Service Users, the Pathology Workforce, Pathology Managers and the wider HSC system. It will briefly describe complimentary programmes to implement new regional Pathology Information Management Systems, and implement a regional Workforce and Training Plan.

The role of the pathology practice educator (PE) was funded and implemented as part of the Covid response. When these roles were recruited to we were well in to the national Covid response, and the vast majority of the pathology laboratories were up and running for Covid testing and so the role of the pathology PE became so much more than Covid. Most pathology PEs no longer have this title and are all working with networks on the recruitment, retention and education of the pathology workforce from support workers to clinical roles, admin staff and biomedical scientists of all levels across all disciplines.

Since their implementation they have worked on numerous projects including a workforce gap analysis; registration portfolio training; specialist portfolio training; apprenticeships; outreach; undergraduate placements and training; continuing professional development and leadership.

There has been improved engagement with the IBMS; Universities; Further Education providers and even schools to ensure that all of the establishments involved within pathology are working together to ensure a brighter future for our pathology workforce.

In this session you will hear how these roles, as individuals and as a network have impacted the pathology workforce and how they can continue to do so as we move to mature pathology networks..

This presentation will give delegates attending an:

Overview of the pre-analytical processing pathway and potential risks associated with each stage.
Historical/current/prospective optimisation of the pre-analytical pathway.
Understanding of the near-future perspectives for standardisation-will technologies such image analysis and spatial profiling affect the practice of pathology laboratories.

The South East Genomic Laboratory Hub provides genetic and genomic testing for 19 acute NHS Trusts and 9 non-acute NHS Trusts in the South London, Kent, Surrey and Sussex region. Within the solid tumours service, we process DNA and RNA from patients with a range of cancer types and analyse them using next generation sequencing (NGS) assays.

Once the variants within a patient’s sample are identified, Clinical Scientists review them and consider what impact they would have on the function on the protein encoded by that gene. Through a process called somatic variant interpretation, the variant will be classified according to its clinical significance in relation to providing diagnostic, prognostic, or therapeutic information.

Some examples of the utility of this service include identification of:

resistance variants in EGFR within the tumours of patients with non-small cell lung cancer, providing the clinician with information to support a change to the patient’s treatment.
gene rearrangements involving TMPRSS2 can support a diagnosis of prostate cancer.
certain variants in POLE within the tumours of patients with endometrial cancer can classify their tumour into a subgroup which is associated with an excellent prognosis

Delegates will learn and understand:

What spatial profiling is about
Multi-omic techniques on tissues
How combining spatial profiling and multi-omic approaches leads to a better understanding of the pathophysiology of disease.