FEATURE ARTICLES

A study in primary care demonstrates how testing can avoid unnecessary hospital admissions and improve patient pathways. Laura Mitcham explains how rapid assessment of full blood count and C-reactive protein contributed to the success of the project.

Pathology has faced major challenges this year to detect the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, and provide support to COVID-19 patients. Sarah Pitt provides an update on the virology, clinical aspects, testing and epidemiology of this pandemic agent.

Unprecedented demand and a need to embrace a personalised approach to medicine: Penny Pinnock looks at these and other challenges currently facing laboratories, and considers the various financial and technological options available to NHS trusts.

Introducing the web-based Sysmex Caresphere Dashboard, which offers quality management features that provide full confidence in analyser and assay performance, and easy access to data across multiple clinical disciplines and physical sites.

In this second article in his new series on method comparisons, Stephen MacDonald moves on from his initial general introduction to consider experimental design and analysis, the sources of samples and the number required, and framework design.

SHOT laboratory incident specialist Victoria Tuckley summarises the 2019 Annual Report, and highlights why it is vital to look beyond the individual, their actions and the assignment of blame or deficiency for improvements in safety to be made.

A recent report, commissioned by Pumping Marvellous and Roche, provided surprising statistics on the diagnosis of heart failure. Carly Schott discusses key findings and the pivotal role laboratories play in the patient pathway.

Long-standing Stago UK customers are pioneering key elements of the company’s My Quality Solutions package as part of their comprehensive laboratory quality control requirements, as illustrated by examples from three hospital sites.

Interferon- γ-inducible protein (IP)-10 is a small glycoprotein member of a family of chemotactic cytokines structurally related to interleukin-8. Its value as a marker of disease severity is now finding application in COVID-19.

The idiom ‘to leave no stone unturned’ means to do everything possible to find something or to solve a problem. Here, Guy Orchard and colleagues apply this approach in the search for an alternative mordant for use in a new haematoxylin solution.

Public Health England is to be replaced by the National Institute for Health Protection; this came as a shock to those working in public health, and to observers with long experience of the service. Valerie Bevan provides an individual assessment.

From the laboratory to the layperson, from pathologists to the public, the response to in vitro diagnostic testing has been engaging across all sectors of society during the current pandemic. Chris Hudson provides a view on the reaction from Roche.

Following series on measurement uncertainty and internal quality control, Stephen MacDonald now turns his attention to method comparison, and here provides an introduction to what will be covered in the series in subsequent issues of the magazine.

The Annual Scientific Conference of the BSMT, due to take place last May, was cancelled. In this article, written on behalf of the BSMT, Mark Wilks collaborates with Adela Medina to summarise the presentation she planned to give at the event.

While still over 12 months away, the Biomedical Science Congress is currently exercising the minds and the ingenuity of the organisers of this biennial event, as IBMS Deputy Chief Executive Sarah May explains.

A recent white paper published by Epredia examined the effective use of formalin fixation in the molecular study of tumour biomarkers, and included the results of a case study of three non-small-cell lung carcinomas of adenocarcinoma subtype.

An award-winning NHS partnership – South West London Pathology – recently installed DxH 900 haematology workcells from Beckman Coulter to enable its laboratories to provide a single, integrated pathology service to more than 3.5 million people.

At Infection Prevention and Control 2020, held in February, NHS leaders warned that increased efforts are required to reduce healthcare-associated infections, if we are to conquer the threat posed by antimicrobial resistance. Louise Frampton reports.

The mortality rate for breast cancer has fallen dramatically. The latest research offers hope for further improvements, not least through the introduction of highly sensitive blood tests and the innovative use of new and existing treatments.

Diverse use of next-generation sequencing in histopathology and microbiology feature in the current issue; however, this molecular methodology is becoming ubiquitous across a wide range of clinical and laboratory applications.