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The advanced specialist diploma in dermatopathology reporting is fully supported by Health Education England and is a pioneering role which is helping to reduce the demand-capacity problems that currently exist within histopathology and specifically dermatopathology.

I am currently working as a consultant healthcare scientist as part of the histopathology reporting team at University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust, specialising in dermatopathology

I was in the first cohort for Dermatopathology reporting and the first to be awarded the qualification. The qualification was developed jointly by the RCPath and the IBMS and has been designed to mirror that of the histopathology medical trainees with four stages A-D. There are two exams- one at the end of stage A and one at the end of stage C. Further, a portfolio of evidence is assessed at each stage in order to progress. To be eligible to apply for the qualification applicants must be a Member or Fellow of the IBMS, a HCPC registered biomedical or clinical scientist, with at least five years’ experience post-registration experience .

I began studying towards the advanced specialist diploma in dermatopathology reporting in November 2017 and successfully completed the qualification in February 2023.

My experience of training towards this qualification has been very positive and rewarding. It has been a difficult journey at times as the qualification is new, but now that it is established, many of the initial issues have been resolved. My role as a Consultant Healthcare Scientist reporter is now firmly established within the department and within the skin team at the hospital. I have excellent working relationships with my colleagues and feel supported and respected.

Amyloidosis is disease caused by extracellular deposition in the tissues of abnormal protein in a characteristic fibrillar form known as amyloid. Early and correct diagnosis is essential so that patients benefit from appropriate and timely treatment.

The presentation will highlight the need for rigour in the demonstration of amyloid, new techniques, research, diagnosis and treatment.

Direct immunofluorescence (DIF) techniques provide the gold standard diagnostic tests for a number of autoimmune immunobullous diseases, including pemphigus and pemphigoid and have clinical utility in other autoantibody-mediated disorders. They are typically performed on unfixed, frozen skin, mucosal and renal biopsies. For optimal diagnostic value, material for DIF requires careful preparation and a number of factors contribute to the quality of the assessed tissue sections. In particular, weak specific fluorescence intensity and high non-specific background fluorescence can hinder accurate interpretation.

This presentation will provide a brief overview of best practice for optimising DIF performance, with a focus on skin and mucosal biopsies. Troubleshooting and helpful tips will be provided covering areas including specimen preparation and the importance of using an appropriate transport medium, rinsing considerations prior to block preparation, factors influencing embedding and cryotomy, protocols for optimising fluorescence and appropriate use of conjugates, imaging considerations for digital pathology solutions, storage of material prior to reporting and best practice strategies for maintaining internal and external quality control, with reference to the NEQAS CPT DIF EQA scheme.

An overview of how Bioinformatics has developed within Anthony Nolan, it's key projects and its impact moving forward. Areas covered will include:

A brief overview of Bioinformatics
Using Bioinformatics at Anthony Nolan;
The IPD reference Databases, in particular the IPD-IMGT/HLA Database
Population genetics of the HLA register
An insight into HLA sequencing and clinical impact
The future of bioinformatics at Anthony Nolan

Delegates will:

Gain an appreciation of the diversity and range of tumour types that can be assessed using Mohs.
Comprehend the complexity of technical requirements to ensure cases are dealt with effectively.
Recognise unusual findings and be able to adjust the investigative procedures in a 'live' setting
Appreciate tumour pattern recognition in Mohs cases

Develop an understanding of the required equipment used in a modern Mohs laboratory
Understand how to embrace design and automation in a modern Mohs laboratory.
Understand the required skills while they are using automated and advanced equipment in Mohs laboratory.
To be aware how automated and advanced equipment will provide enhanced and more accurate results and improve quality performance.

Molecular testing is now part of the standard of care pathway for many types of solid tumours with new tests being required to be introduced into laboratories quite rapidly. As part of the quality process external quality assessment (EQA) is required to ensure that the results obtained in this testing are accurate.

This talk will provide an overview of how EQAs for molecular pathology are delivered, summarise the results for some of these EQAs highlighting some of the issues observed. It will also highlight some of the different technologies used for testing and how reporting of results is assessed in the EQAs

Delegates will learn:

What Gestational trophoblastic disease is, including the different types and how they arise
How to handle a sample at the dissection bench including comparison with normal products of conception
How to distinguish between the different types of disease and mimics
What a diagnosis of gestational trophoblastic disease means for the patient
What the malignant entities of Gestational Trophoblastic Disease include

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.

Digital imaging for remote viewing to enable reporting is becoming increasingly prevalent in the NHS cellular pathology services. Sea change levels of improvement in the technology that enables digital image acquisition, viewing, transfer and storage has allowed its widespread deployment and adoption and concomitant to this has been the development of software applications to enable the analysis of those digital images for a huge variety of reasons.

In my talk I will discuss the application of digital image analysis to the scans of the slides that we assess as part of our routine external quality assessment (EQA) workload. Both as aids to improve the information and the accuracy of that information e.g., in the assessment of the proliferation marker Ki-67 in breast cancer to improve its use as a prognostic marker, and as a tool to verify and quality control our own processes and EQA materials e.g., the measurement of reproducibility and homogeneity in tissue and cell line samples used in the assessment of PD-L1 immunohistochemistry staining in non-small cell lung cancer.