Registration, Networking & Breakfast

This presentation will describe a collaboration between the Royal College of Pathology and Health Education England’s Technology Enhanced Learning team to build a digital approach to pathology education to support those in practice and in training.

• A cloud-based approach through implementation of digital pathology with potential for the introduction of an AI capability holds the promise of overcoming challenges faced by many departments.
• Workforce shortages, reliance on courier networks, risks of slide breakages, and the need to increase efficiencies in diagnostic delivery, not to mention the long-standing reliance on unnecessary packaging.
• Join us for a lively discussion of introducing digitalisation, streamed workflow, local system interfacing, data storage and administrative support - all of which contribute toward massive improvements to patient experience and safety, reduced turnaround times and a reduction in environmental impact.

• The shortage of clinical pathologists and the challenges it poses for pathology services.
• The impacts of this shortage on patients, including treatment delays
• How Diagnexia, a digital pathology service that aims to address these challenges by providing access to high-quality subspecialty services and reducing backlogs through a network of expert diagnostic pathologists

Case Study (Beckman Coutler)

Lab Transformation beyond Technology

Digital pathology is a sub-field of pathology that focuses on data management based on information generated from digitized specimen slides. Glass slides are converted into digital slides that can be viewed, managed, shared and analyzed on a computer monitor. The conversion to digital pathology requires careful preparation of the pre-analytical processes.

Tissue preparation, embedding, sectioning and staining must be optimal in order to achieve high quality scans. High quality images can be only generated from optimized Digital Ready Slides.

Learning Objectives

• Describe the key characteristics of Digital Ready Slides
• Demonstrate the impact of tissue preparation steps on scan quality
• Slide inspection, scanning and quality control

Case Study (Aiforia Technologies)

• Optimal resolution and screen size
• Uniformity
• Colour and tonal consistency
• Brightness
• The QC software and calibration

With traditional imaging and pathology workflows typically taking two weeks, from sample collection and preparation to diagnosis, we pose the question; how can we help? When we also consider the numerous other challenges currently facing the healthcare sector, including the immense pressure on staffing, the need for support and change is clear.

Through the implementation of new, innovative technologies, these workflows can be streamlined and condensed down to a number of hours, dramatically improving patient care and outcomes. Join our session to hear our CIO, Jonathan Bridges, discuss more about our initiative for the National Pathology Imaging Cooperative. They will delve into how bringing clinical, radiologic, and genomic data into the Cloud enables organisations to optimise patient outcomes and enable more effective collaboration between healthcare professionals, wherever they are located. 

Q&A Panel

Modernising Pathology Services: Panel discussion

Hosted by: Mr Chris Sleight, Greater Manchester Clinical Support Services Director

• Mark Hindle, Managing Director Lancashire and South Cumbria Pathology service, Lancashire and South Cumbria
• Saghar Missaghian-Cully, Managing Director,North West London Pathology

Drinks Reception, Networking and End of Day