Speakers
The Association of Clinical Biochemistry & Laboratory Medicine
Direct to Consumer Testing (DTCT) has been expanding across the UK in recent years. This is partly due new technology becoming available, private sector appetite for profit and increasing demand from patients to take more control of their own health and fill the gap left by an increasingly rationed NHS. There are however significant issues associated with such expansion. A relative lack of regulation of products becoming available flags up potential quality issues - especially for at home point of care testing kits purchased over the internet. Test appropriateness is also questionable, with large panels of tests (2-300) being offered in some instances, which inevitably will flag up many false positive results.
The lack of interoperability with NHS databases and method differences will inevitably mean such DTCT results will not be comparable or incorporable into NHS patient records. Patients turning up to GP practices with pages of test results will impose an additional burden on the NHS at a time when it is already under huge pressure. Policy and guidance on regulation, quality, appropriateness and incorporation into patient records will be needed to ensure patient care is optimised.
Bernie is an NHS Chemical Pathologist from Aberdeen specialising in intravenous nutritional support. He is a science and medicine graduate, and trained in general medicine, chemical pathology and Health Services/Public Health Research. He has spent a long career in various leadership roles within NHS Scotland including clinical director and regional lead for pathology, NHS Scotland demand optimisation lead and chair of the Scottish Clinical Biochemistry Network (SCBN). He is also the current Past President of the Association for Clinical Biochemistry and Laboratory Medicine (ACB-UK).
He is a fellow of both the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow and the Institute of Biomedical Science. Within RCPath he has chaired many committees, been Scotland Regional Council Chair for 9 years and a Trustee for 13 years. He served as Vice-President from 2011-14, and is now President Elect, commencing as RCPath President in November 2023.