FEATURE ARTICLES

Early this year, Ortho Clinical Diagnostics welcomed a royal visitor to its new manufacturing facility in South Wales. From Pencoed, local expertise in enhanced chemiluminescence is now serving a global market. In June of this year, HRH The Prince of Wales marked the opening of Ortho Clinical Diagnostics’ new state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Pencoed, South Wales, with an official visit. The Prince of Wales, who has a personal commitment to the area, first toured the facility and then delivered a speech in which he praised the company’s commitment for building this innovative manufacturing centre. He also planted a commemorative tree and met with employees.

Recently, the pace of evolution in microbiology has been stepped up with the introduction of simple but effective technology designed to make more use of the liquid phase. Rachel Adams explains. The name Sterilin has been synonymous with quality in single-use plastics for more than 40 years. Now, working exclusively in the UK with Copan Diagnostics, the company is leading the long-awaited revolution in pre-analytical clinical microbiology.

Automation has been a late starter in microbiology; however, it is now making up for lost time by addressing the problems associated with handling the most prolific of samples submitted for analysis. The first semi-automated laboratory urine analysers appeared on the market over 30 years ago, utilised dry chemistry dipstick technology and were mainly used in UK microbiology laboratories.

Intelligent blood storage and dispensing system provided by Olympus has enabled compliance with Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency regulations. Following the installation of five BloodTrack HemoNine remote-issue blood refrigerators from Olympus UK, the transfusion laboratory at Barts and The London NHS Trust has seen significant savings in blood stock, staff time and overall costs across its three hospitals – The Royal London, St Bartholomew’s and The London Chest Hospital.

The DX Group has been supplying a courier service to the health sector since 1999. Now, the company has launched the use of handheld devices to improve the end-to-end delivery process. Established in 1975, DX Group is the UK’s leading independent specialist mail, courier and secure logistics company. In 1999, DX recognised a need in the health sector for a cost-effective and reliable next-day packaging and delivery service that catered to the needs of transporting biological specimens between hospitals and laboratories nationwide.

Worldwide, over 40 million people are living with HIV infection. However, barriers to diagnosis of this condition have now been weakened by the introduction of a new in vitro diagnostics test, which has found application in north-east England.

At Ealing Hospital and Sonic TDL in London, the synergistic effects of Roche analysers and integrated software solutions have helped to maximise resources and create a seamless network.

Interferon-gamma release assays have been developed to improve the diagnosis of tuberculosis. Here, Colin Walker reviews current research which shows that two commercial kits offer considerably improved specificity over the established tuberculin skin test.

The presence of lipid in a grossly lipaemic plasma/serum sample can have significant effect on various chemistry parameters and is a problem in many routine biochemistry departments. In a small study, Jessica Thibeault looks at the effect of an innovative clearing system.

In the ever-changing, evolving and developing scientific arena that is laboratory medicine, Mark Reed spares a thought for a traditional product that is still part of the foundations of diagnostics... the stain.

Delegates including consultant gynaecologists, obstetricians and cytopathologists in the fields of surgical and diagnostics procedures gathered in Brussels last autumn for an Hologic user meeting.

Optimum tuberculosis management requires rapid detection, prevention and treatment, but David Persing believes current technology is inadequate. Here, he explains why a new test could prove to be one of the most important diagnostic developments to have occurred in many years.

Advances in embryology that have characterised medical progress over the past quarter of a century have relied on the application of methods such as controlled-rate freezing, as Paul Lakra and Geoffrey Planer explain.

In today's healthcare environment, automation is vital for streamlining operations and advancing patient care. Full automation has now become standard in chemistry and haematology; however, bioMérieux products are now helping microbiology laboratories enjoy similar benefits. Thierry Bernard and Jean-Louis Tissier explain.

Managed service contracts are seen as a valuable asset in the provision of modern pathology services. Now, Beckman Coulter is branding its next-generation offering as Three60,bringing with it a new level of support expertise.

Dispensing blood from a vending-style machine located inside the operating theatre has now become a reality, as Pathology in Practice discovered at a recent UK patient safety roadshow.

Recently, measures have been introduced which aim to combat the spread of hospital-acquired infections. Now, Oxoid’s range of Brilliance chromogenic media has been extended to complement the very latest infection control procedures.

With test menus and consolidated solutions to suit any size of laboratory, Roche is now being relied upon by more and more hospital trusts for their diagnostic needs and managed laboratory services support. Here, departments on Guernsey and in Wales demonstrate how their laboratories are benefiting from this support, and we learn about a new bone marker assay.

The 50,000th Siemens Clinitek Status urine analyser has just been installed in the Children’s Ward and Teenage Unit at Frimley Park Hospital in Surrey. Ward sisters Gail Ashworth and Gillian Rooney and members of the hospital’s point-of-care team were accompanied by some of their patients to receive the analyser from Kate Cox, operational manager at Frimley Park. Members of the Siemens team had travelled to the presentation from Sudbury, Suffolk, where the analyser is made, so that they could see at first hand how it is used in a hospital setting.

Prior to adoption of the EU Blood Safety Directive 2005 (1) into UK law, The Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust undertook an audit of its paper-based transfusion process to find that only 70% of transfusion records were available in patients’ case notes. Consequently, the trust sought to amend the process to ensure that the directive’s 100% traceability requirements were met.