Immunodiagnostics: a quarter of a century of Italian influence

DiaSorin, the diagnostics specialist, recently celebrated its Silver Jubilee in style by coupling the company’s biennial conference with a stunning Venetian-style ball, reflecting the organisation’s Italian origins. The event, held at the company’s UK headquarters in Dartford, Kent, was attended by many leading figures in the field of pathology.

When developing its conference programme, DiaSorin always ensures that topics for discussion are current, informative and relevant to the challenges laboratories are facing in the current economic climate. This year’s main topic looked at laboratories being asked to be more productive with less funding, their two main options to achieve this being to become more 'Lean' or to adopt a hub-and-spoke network.

Experts in the field
In order to look at both aspects of this discussion, DiaSorin invited experts in the field to speak to attendees on the subject. David Hamer (professional lead for laboratory medicine at the Royal Bolton Hospital and National Clinical Lead for Blood Sciences, NHS Improvement) presented a talk entitled 'Thinking Differently', while Tony Scriven (chief operating officer at Empath) spoke about 'Pathology Consolidation'. DiaSorin also included a session on the new in vitro diagnostic (IVD) regulations, something that will play a pivotal role in how laboratories provide some of their current services in the future. Sue Spencer (head of IVD, British Standards Institute) delivered an informative presentation on this.