UKMedLab21

Chris Laing

Dr Chris Laing is a consultant nephrologist at Royal Free London and UCLH. He was formerly associate medical director of the royal free and is currently divisional clinical director for emergency services at UCLH. He was foundational chair of London AKI Network and clinical lead for the UCL Partners AKI collaborative and the London AKI SDEC programme. He was a member of the NICE AKI guideline groups and COVID-19 AKI groups and was a board member of the National AKI and Think Kidneys programmes. He clinically led the DeepMind-Royal Free Streams collaboration.

Brief overview of the talk

Acute kidney injury is a common condition in hospitalised patients and confers an 18% associated mortality risk and a 15% risk of CKD at one year. Treatment is time sensitive and reliant on rapid detection and interpretation of clinical data. In his talk Dr Laing will discuss the design, development, implementation, and evaluation of the DeepMind streams-AKI platform in Royal Free Hospital. He will also discuss his collaborative work with DeepMind and the Veterans affairs hospital group on use of deep learning artificial intelligence to continuously predict future AKI and adverse outcomes. He will also outline a potential future “learning system” for AKI care.

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Mark Lawler

Prof Mark Lawler,Associate Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Professor of Digital Health, and Chair in Translational Cancer Genomics,Queen's University Belfast (QUB)

Mark is an internationally renowned scientist with over 200 papers including key publications in the highest impact journals. His work has been recognised by numerous national and international awards. He is Associate Director of Health Data Research Wales-Northern Ireland which is driving innovative precision medicine and public health approaches through the use of Big Data. He is Scientific Director of DATA-CAN, the UK’s National Health Data Research Hub for Cancer.

Mark has a strong commitment to patient-centred research/care and to addressing cancer inequalities. He was architect of the European Cancer Patient's Bill of Rights, which he launched in the European Parliament with colleagues on World Cancer Day 2014. The Bill of Rights received The 2018 European Health Award, a prestigious award for partnerships that yield real health impact in Europe. Mark’s work on addressing inequalities and access issues in relation to cancer care formed the centrepiece in the development by the European Cancer Organisation of the European Code of Cancer Practice, which Mark launched (virtually) with EU Health and Food Safety Commissioner Stella Kyriakides in Brussels in September 2020.

Mark’s work on Covid-19 and its impact on cancer services and cancer patients has received international attention and he co-chairs the European Cancer Organisation’s (E.C.O) Special Focussed Network on Covid-19 and cancer, which launched its 7-Point plan to Build Back Better (and smarter) from Covid. He presented recent data on Covid’s impact on cancer in Europe to the Europ Beating Cancer Committee in the European Parliament and launched E.C.Os pan European Time To Act Campaign to ensure that Covid-19 does not stop us from tackling cancer. He recently received the Irish Association for Cancer Research’s Outstanding Contribution to cancer research award,for his pioneering work on cancer research and cancer care on the island of Ireland.

In his spare time (if he has any!) Mark performs an acclaimed One Man Show on the Irish Writer James Joyce, which he does to raise money for charity.

Brief overview of the talk

Turning information into intelligence is key to underpinning a greater understanding of human disease and its translation into better health and wellbeing for our citizens. Crucial to this Big Data for Better Health agenda  is the need to share information from diverse sources in a responsible and effective manner, in order to ensure its rapid deployment for patient benefit. Initiatives such as the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH) and Health Data Research UK (HDRUK), a data science institute for the digital world, are increasingly providing the tools, expertise and impetus to help  turn  data from different sources  into intelligence that ultimately lead to better care for the patient. These initiatives and their outputs will be discussed, with a particular emphasis on how cancer research and cancer care have benefitted from a data-informed approach. Patient and public trust are crucial  to ensuring that data are deployed in a responsible fashion. Data have been critical in assessing the impact of Covid-19 on cancer services and cancer patients during the pandemic and using this intelligence to help mitigate the impact of Covid and enhance the resilience of our health systems must be a priority.

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Manu Vatish

No bio provided

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Jenny Nobes

Jenny Nobes is a specialty registrar in Chemical Pathology in NHS Tayside. Her involvement in the intelligent Liver Function Testing (iLFT) project began when she came to Dundee in 2018. She has been particularly involved in the addition ofthe Enhanced Liver Fibrosis score to iLFT, submitting this work for her MSc thesis in 2019. As part of the iLFT team she has been pleased to receive a UNIVANTS of Health Care Excellence award and a Royal College of Pathologists Excellence Award for Innovation in Pathology Practice.

 

Session: Intelligent algorithms for the automated assessment of derenged LFT's

Session Date: Tuesday 15thJune 2021

The intelligent Liver Function Testing (iLFT) pathway is a multi-award winning tool which improves the early diagnosis of liver disease in Primary Care. If initial liver function tests are abnormal, iLFT automatically cascades further biochemistry, haematology, immunology and virology investigations as appropriate. The results of these are combined with clinical details supplied by the requestor to generate a diagnosis and management plan –all from a single venepuncture. More than 6500 patients have gone through the iLFT pathway in the first 2 years. In this talk we will explore what conclusions can be drawn from this data set by conventional methods, and how we could apply ‘big data’ approaches in the future.

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Jim R Bonham

Jim Bonham is currently the National Laboratory Lead for the New-born Screening Blood Spot Programme in the UK on behalf of Public Health England.   He is also President of the International Society for Neonatal Screening with more than 500 members in 40 countries.

In 2012 he led a study to introduce additional inherited metabolic disorders into the national new-born screening programme in the UK.  Four of these were incorporated as part of the programme in England and Wales from 2015.

He has interests in the organisation, quality and effectiveness of new-born screening and how this might be optimised and extended to benefit patients and families in the UK and Europe and more recently as part of the Global Taskforce on new-born screening, to low- and middle-income countries.

His efforts in these areas were generously recognised by the award of an MBE in 2020.

Brief overview of the talk

In 2008 the Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care funded an evaluation of five additional disorders (IVA, MSUD, HCU, GA1 and LCHADD) for possible inclusion in the newborn screening programme in England. After two years, and taken together as a group, 30 patients were identified with an overall positive predictive value of 46%. On that basis, four of these conditions (IVA, MSUD, HCU, and GA1) were incorporated within newborn screening in England and Wales with effect from from 1st January 2015.

During the period 2012 –2016, a total of 76 patients were identified and their outcome was assessed in 2016. The mean age of the group at that time was 5.3 yr, 7 had died and insufficient information was available for 5 cases. Of the remaining 64 children all were living at home 50/64 had not had a hospital admission over the last year. 23% showed some intellectual impairment, 22% speech/language delay, 14% neurological abnormalities, 11% delayed motor milestones, 6% showed visual/hearing problems and 6% evidence of behavioural issues.

The collective prevalence for these four conditions was 1:32k, very close to the 1:33k predicted in 2010 from scrutiny of the international literature.

The significance of this outcome study for newborn screening in the UK is presented.

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Julian Barth

Julian Barth was a Chemical Pathologist and Metabolic Physician at Leeds Teaching Hospitals where he was also Director of the SAS Steroid Centre. He is a Past President of the Association for Clinical Biochemistry and Laboratory Medicine (2009-2011) and was Editor-in-Chief of the Annals of Clinical Biochemistry for 5 years until 2008.

Julian initiallytrained as a dermatologist before starting his career in chemical pathology and during this time, researched on the metabolism of skin apocrine glands for his MD thesis. This stimulated his interest in endocrinology and his laboratory in Leeds was the first in the UK to introduce tandem mass spectrometry for routine measurement of steroid hormones. His clinical interestsare obesity and porphyria. He has represented the ACB on several national and international bodies including the Society for Endocrinology, the EFLM and IFCC.

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Siobhan O'Sullivan

Dr Siobhan O’ Sullivan is a Consultant Metabolic Paediatrician at the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children in Belfast. She graduated from University College Cork Medical School and trained in paediatrics and metabolic medicine in Temple Street Children’s Hospital, Dublin,AddenbrookesHospital, Cambridge and Great Ormond StreetHospital,London. Her interestsinclude mitochondrial and lysosomal storage disorders. Siobhan plays an active role in severalnational and internationalprofessional societies and organisations.

Session: Impact of genomic Sequencing on Paediatric Metabolic Services

Session Date: Tuesday, 15th June 2021

This service is the single paediatric tertiary metabolic service for Northern Ireland for inborn errors of metabolism (IEM). The first IEM was described in 1902 by Sir Archibald Garrod. Since then, many more have been described, variously estimated as >600or >700. IEMs are rare single -gene disorders, involving deficits in synthesis or breakdown of molecules. Recognising individuals with IEMs can be difficult because signs and symptoms often overlap those of common medical conditions. Next generation Sequencing (NGS) represents a huge leap forward from traditional Sanger sequencing, generating far more genetic information at a reasonable timescale and cost. NGS has unprecedented power to transform the clinical practice of diagnosing IEMS, with profound benefits to patients. However, to be effectively utilised in a clinical/hospital setting requires multidisciplinary collaboration between clinicians, genomic experts, and scientists. NGS is thus taking its place alongside routine and specialist biochemical enzymatic service in optimal diagnostic pathways and management for IEMs.

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Michael Delaney

I have been in post as Consultant Nephrologist in East Kent, based at the Kent & Canterbury Hospital, since 2001. I have enjoyed a number ofexcellent collaborations with our Clinical Biochemistry team over the years producing original research, teaching and writing. I have co-authored the ACB book, Kidney Disease and Laboratory Medicine with Dr Ed Lamb, and regularly write clinical chapters for other recognised texts. My subspecialty interests are mineral and bone disease, glomerulonephritis, contrast nephropathy andtransplantation. Following graduation from St Marys Hospital London, my postgraduate training was completed in the West Midlands, and I was awarded MD from University of Warwick studying applied pharmacology of immunosuppressive drugs in kidney transplantation.

Session: Renal transplant biochemistry: the essentials and beyond

Session Date: Wednesday 16thJune 2021

During my time in Canterbury, I have had the pleasure of trainee clinical biochemists attend various clinics. During the sessions we go through the transplant cases and link this to the role of clinical biochemistry in the program. I would like today to bring a flavour of those encounters to the wider virtual audience. Looking forward, and 'post'-Covid, some developmentsin remote monitoring in the transplant clinic will also be discussed.

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Tanya Curran

Dr Tanya Curran is a Consultant Clinical Scientist & Virologist in the Regional Virus Laboratory Belfast and is an Honorary Lecturer in Queens University Belfast. She completed her PhD in Molecular Microbiology in 2006 at Queens University Belfast and became a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists in 2011. Her main research interests include the epidemiology of Pneumocystis jiroveciiin addition to the development and adoption of new technologies to improve diagnosis of infectious disease. Her work has been published in international peer-reviewed journals and she is a previous Editor of the Journal of Medical Microbiology. In 2015 she was awarded the Ebola Medal for Service in West Africa in recognition of her contribution as part of the UK response to the fight against Ebola.

She is currently the scientific lead representing Northern Ireland on the National Expert Group and Technical Validation Group for SARS-CoV2 testing, and a member of the Norther Ireland Expert Advisory Group for COVID testing

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Hamish Courtney

Hamish Courtney is a Consultant Endocrinologistin the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast.He received both his medical education and MD at Queen’s University, Belfast and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California San Diego. His current leadership roles include Clinical Director of the Northern Ireland Regional Diabetes Network and Council member of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. He is the sole provider of endocrinology care for the transgender service in Northern Ireland.

Brief overview of the talk

The increasing number of patients identifying as transgender is having an impact on many aspects of healthcare delivery, including biochemistry and endocrinology laboratories. The laboratory has an important role to play in the assessment of patients prior to starting therapy and then in the life-long monitoring of treatment. This is both in terms of identifying potential adverse effects and also to inform clinicians and patients to allow appropriate dose adjustment of hormone therapy. Significant challenges however exist for laboratory staff in delivering this service with issues including difficulties in the interpretation of results, particularly when gender-specific reference ranges are used. Additionally there may be limited awareness by both laboratory staff and perhaps the requesting clinician of a patient’s current therapies, especially if self-medicating often from internet sources. Other challenges include functionality of laboratory information systems to enable gender identification as transgender and also to accommodate what at times can be significant personal name changes.

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Paul Dark

Paul originally studied undergraduate physics and then medicine. Graduating from The Manchester Medical School 1989, he went on to study clinical academic surgery, emergency medicine and critical care at the Universities of Glasgow and Manchester in the UK, and at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium.

He returned to Manchester in 1998 as MRC Clinical Training Fellow, completing his PhD supervised by Professor Rod Little at the MRC Trauma Unit in 2002, where he developed non-invasive methods to transduce and study dynamic cardio-respiratory responses to tissue injury and haemorrhage.

He was appointed to his current substantive clinical academic post at the University of Manchester in 2003, developing clinical services and academic practice in CriticalCare Medicine as Honorary NHS Consultant at Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust. He developed and provides leadership for a programme of work, funded largely by the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR), investigating and assessing the diagnostic utility of emerging molecular technologies in the setting of sterile tissue injury and severe infection. Funded by Innovate UK (formerly Technology Strategy Board) he has also led a programme of work developing novel technologies aimed at rapid point-of-careinfection/sepsis diagnosis.

He is NIHR's National Specialty Lead for Critical Care providing leadership oversight for a range of large-scale pragmatic clinical trials in the UK and he represents NIHR internationally. He served on NIHR's Urgent Public Health Research Advisory Group, providing expert advice on research priroity for DHSC and UK's CMOs during the COVID-19 pandemic. From April 2021, succeeding Professor Steve Smye, Paul was appointed as NIHR National Specialty Cluster Lead at King's College London, providing strategic oversight and guidance for research in Trauma and Emergency Care, Anaesthesia, Peri-operative medicine, Pain medicine, Critical Care, Dermatology and Imaging Science. In addtion, he is Research Professor in The Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute at The University of Manchester, providing strategic interdisciplinary collaborative leadership and translation of acute care research in low resource settings.

Brief overview of the talk

My talk will focus on the evidence underpinning the clinical effectiveness of commonly measurable circulating markers of inflammation and infection (CRP and PCT) in guiding antibiotic stewardship for patients with sepsis. Areas of uncertainty will be explored, particularly those highlighted during a respiratory viral pandemic, and ongoing multi-centre NHS clinical studies will be reviewed aimed at resolving this uncertainty. The crucial role of NHS clinical biochemistry laboratory services will be highlighted in the co-creation of a new evidence base.

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Paul O Collinson

MA MB BChir FRCPath MD FACB FRCP FESC

Professor of Cardiovascular Biomarkers at St George’s University of London and Honorary Consultant Cardiologist studied at St Catharine’s College Cambridge (Medicine and Biochemistry) and subsequently at St Thomas Hospital and the Royal Free Hospital. He was won several prizes and awards for his work on Cardiovascular Biomarkers (ran the first RCT of cardiac diagnostics) including the Hytest Award (Now IFCC award) for lifetime achievement in cardiovascular biomarkers.  Published over 280 papers and review articles, 281 abstracts and 15 book chapters. Likes SCUBA diving and photographing sharks. Especially the ones with big teeth.

Brief overview of the talk

Professor Paul Collinson, Departments of Clinical Blood Sciences and Cardiologyand Cardiovascular Clinical Academic Group, Molecular and Clinical Sciences Research Institute, St. George's, University of London and St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, London, UKThe measurement of the cardiac troponins (cTn), cardiac troponin T (cTnT) and cardiac troponin I (cTnI) are integral to the diagnostic algorithms for the management of patients with suspected acute coronary syndromes (ACS). in patients presenting without clear ECG evidence of myocardial infarction. Rapid results return plus immediate decision-making should translate into improved patient flow and improved therapeutic decision-making, shown by randomised controlled trials of point of care testing. The switch to cTn in the universal definition of MI provided a spur to the manufacturers to improve the analytical quality of cTn measurement, culminating in the development of high sensitivity troponin assays. These assays offer significant clinical advantages. Diagnostic algorithms have been devised utilising very low cut-offs at first presentation and rapid sequential measurements based on admission and 3-hour sampling, most recently with admission and 1-2 hour sampling. These protocols also utilise change in troponin values, delta troponin. Such troponin algorithmsare suited to point of care testing as the turnaround time achieved by the diagnostic laboratory of typically 60 minutes corresponds to the sampling interval required by the clinician using the algorithm. The limits of detection and analytical imprecisionrequired to utilise these algorithms are beginning to be met by easy-to-use POCT systems. Previously, such systems would need a 3-6 hour rule out protocol to achieve the same degree of diagnostic efficiency that can be achieved by a combination of admission and 1-2 hour sampling using laboratory-based high sensitivity systems. Demonstration of true clinical utility is now the challenge for POCT.

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Donna Fullerton

Dr Donna Fullerton is a Consultant Clinical Scientist and Laboratory Lead for Inborn Errors of Metabolism at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust.Her involvement with a case of Fabry’s Disease as a trainee sparked her interest in Metabolic Disease, leading to completion of a HST post at Birmingham Children’s Hospital and appointment to a clinical scientist post in the metabolic laboratory at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust.She is the current Secretary of the British Inherited Metabolic Disease Group (BIMDG) following a seven year term as Treasurer and previous role as clinical scientist trainee representative.Donna is the current DeputyTraining Lead for MetBioNet and the Nottingham laboratory representative on the MetBioNet stakeholders group.

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Paul Hamilton

Dr Paul Hamilton is a Clinical Lecturer at Queen’s University Belfast and a Consultant Chemical Pathologist at Belfast Health and Social Care Trust. He has an interest in cardiovascular and bone health, as well as all aspects of general biochemistry.

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Claire Hart

Claire Hart is a Clinical Scientist at Sheffield Children’s Hospital who has spent 20 years working in paediatrics and specialising in Biochemical Genetics in particular, in Sheffield, Singapore and Manchester.

Brief overview of the talk

Awareness of IEMs in adults is poor andtesting piecemeal at best. The aim of this session is to improve knowledge and understanding of the types of disorders that present in adulthood, the ways in which they present, things to look out for and common mistakes / pitfalls.

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Alexandra Yates

Mrs. Alexandra Yates. Director of Scientific Affairs

Alex, is a Clinical scientist in the biochemistry department at the North Midlands and Cheshire Pathology Service, where her interest include analytical interferences, renal medicine and quality improvement.

Alex was appointed as Directorof Scientific affairsin May 2019 after 5 years on the scientificcommittee, and a previous role as a national member onthe ACB council.Aschair of theScientific and clinical practice committee, her vision is that the scientific committee should serve all ACB members acrossall disciplines theyrepresent, whilst supporting the fulfillment ofthe wider ACB strategy, via action such as the scientific scholarships.

Other wider interest includeequality and diversity with NHS organizations, Alex is passionatein enacting meaningful change leading to equity for all and recognizing the benefits this bring to the NHS and wider community.

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Joe Frost

No bio provided

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Gemma Reidy

Gemma Reidy is a recent graduate of the NSHCS Scientist Training Programme, with over a decade of experience working within NHS Biochemistry and Immunology departments. As a Clinical Biochemist, Gemma takes great pride in providing a valuable service for patients from her local community in Coventry and Warwickshire. One of her goals is to help translate clinical research into improvements in clinical outcomes and quality of life for those patients.

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Adrian Sheilds

No bio provided

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Brona Roberts

Brona Roberts is a consultant chemical pathologist in Belfast Health and Social Care Trust with a particular interest in metabolic bone disease and CV risk management.

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Grainne Connolly

Grainne Connolly is a Consultant Chemical Pathologist in Belfast Health and Social Care Trust. She has an interest in all aspects of general clinical biochemistry and a particular interest in inherited metabolic disease and diabetes.

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Lance Sandle

Lance was born and educated in Leeds. After pre-registration posts at St James’s Hospital he trained in general and chemical pathology in Manchester. He was Consultant Chemical Pathologist at Trafford General Hospital (and latterly ate Manchester Royal Infirmary from 1986 to 2020.Locally he served as Clinical Audit Chair, Clinical Director, Deputy Medical Director and Interim Medical Director. Lance continues as a vaccinator at COVID vaccination clinics.

Lance chaired the North West Regional Council of the Royal College of Pathologists from 2004-7, having served as Speciality and CPD Advisor in the years prior to that. He also served on the National Quality Assurance Advisory Panel for Chemical Pathology for 8 years, and chaired it from 2001 –2005. Lance was Director of Professional Standards at the Royal College of Pathologists 2007-2011, Vice-President for Professionalism 2014-2017 and is currently Registrar. He chaired the RCPath Informatics Committee 2017-20, on which he continues to sit as well as on the Quality Assurance Committee. Within the College Lance has roles in committee governance, equality and diversity, and college representation on, and collaboration with, outside bodies and sister organisations.

Whilst Vice-President Lance represented the College in the process for formation of the Faculty of Clinical Informatics, of which he is a Founder Fellow. He serves on Faculty Council and is chair of the Governance and Representation Subcommittee. He is also joint lead for Clinical Audit.

Mayur Patel

Dr Mayur Patelis a Consultant in Chemical Pathology with Metabolic Medicine at Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Oxford University Hospitals (honorary). He undertook his PhD in molecular endocrinology atBarts & The London andinvestigated novel molecular processes involved in cutaneous steroidogenesisprior to doing medicine. He undertook his specialist training in Chemical Pathology & Metabolic Medicine at Oxford University Hospitals.

He is an Honorary Senior Lecturer at the University of Oxford, Honorary Lecturer at the University of Bristol and lead for pathology teaching to Bristol undergraduate medical students at the Great Western Hospitals.He is also a Deputy Associate Medical Director and Chief Clinical Information Officer at the at Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

He is currently the Director of Clinical Practice for the Association of Clinical Biochemistry and Laboratory Medicine (ACB).

Alex Miras

Alex Mirasis a Senior Lecturer and Consultant in Endocrinology and Obesity Medicine at Imperial College London. His clinical and research work focus solely on Obesity. He has contributed to the clinical management and research in Obesity over the last 10 years, through his work at a high throughput Obesity Centre. The specialist interests of his research Group are the mechanisms of action of interventions for obesity, focusing on pharmacotherapy, medical devices and obesity surgery.

Brief overview of the talk

In this session I will cover the potential nutritional complications of obesity surgery, how to spot them and treat them.

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Gail Hayward

Professor Gail Hayward isthe Deputy Director of the NIHR Community Healthcare MedTech and IVD Cooperative. Her research interests lie in diagnosis and management of common infections in primary care and in the generation of evidence for new diagnostic technologies in primary care settings. She is co-PI of the PRINCIPLE study evaluating treatments for COVID-19 in community patients. She isalso interested in characterising the work of the primary care Out-of-Hours services and exploring the ways this service could be improved by use of new technologies or different models of care.Professor Hayward is a practicing GPin Oxford city.

Brief overview of the talk

The session will discuss the current state of point of care testing in community settings and recent new developments, the potential benefits of increasing the array of point of care diagnostic technology and the barriers and facilitators to achieving this, considering the role of clinical biochemistry and haematology teams working collaboratively with primary care.

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David Grenache

Dr. Grenache is the chief scientific officer for TriCore Reference Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico. In that role, he leads the TriCore Research Institute and works cooperatively to develop and implement TriCore’s scientific research strategy.

He is also the medical director of the chemistry, immunology, and esoteric analytic chemistry labs, a clinical professor of pathology at the University of New Mexico, andpresident of the American Association for Clinical Chemistry.

Dr. Grenache earned his PhD in biomedical sciences from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, Massachusetts, and completed postdoctoral training in clinical chemistry at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri. He is a diplomate of the American Board of Clinical Chemistry and a Fellow in the AACC Academy. His research interests are centered on leveraging longitudinal laboratory data to gain insights into population health and the diagnostic tests used to manage the pregnant patient.

 

Session: Scientific Session –AACC Lecture: Brave or Not, the Direct-to-Consumer Genetic Testing World is Here. What’s the Current Landscape?

Session Date: Wednesday 16th June 2021

The direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic testing marketplace is growing rapidly. Genetic tests can be purchased online for disease predisposition and carrier status, ancestry, wellness and a variety of other purposes. While some of these tests may have clinical utility and validity others have a more dubious purpose with suspect validity. The current landscape of DTC genetic testing including risks, benefits and regulations will be explored.

Learning Objectives

1. Describe the different uses of DTC genetic tests
2. Discuss the pros and cons of DTC genetic tests

Explain the current regulatory environment for DTC genetic tests

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Maurice O'Kane

Maurice O’Kane has been a consultant chemical pathologist for over 20 years. I am a member of the IFCC Committee ‘Value Proposition in Laboratory Medicine’ which aims to identify and improve the value that Laboratory Medicine brings tohealthcare. Other current professional roles include Director of the N. Ireland Clinical Research Network and Joint Editor-in Chief, Annals of Clinical Biochemistry. I was previously Director of Clinical Practice at the Association for Clinical Biochemistry and Laboratory Medicine. I am a visiting Professor at the School of Biomedical Sciences, Ulster University. Among my research interests are aspects of point-of-care testing and patient self-management in diabetes mellitus.

Session: Scientific Session –The Value Proposition for Laboratory Medicine

Session Date: Thursday 17th June 2021

IFCC Committee for the Value Proposition in Laboratory Medicine.
St John A, O’Kane M, Julicher P, Christenson R, Price CP.

The IFCC Committee for the Value Proposition in Laboratory Medicine is one of several initiatives that is attempting to both identify and improve the value that laboratory testing brings to healthcare. The work of the Committee is now focussing on the processes that take place when individual laboratories or healthcare providers agree to adopt a test and put it into routine practice, namely implementation. The latter which is about translating the benefits of a test as demonstrated in randomised controlled trials into a local and effective clinical pathway. The importance of this process is barely recognised and therefore is poorly performed leading to various consequences including significant and unwarranted variation in testing. The Committee has described an Implementation Framework aimed at improving the implementation process that includes recognition of all the stakeholders in a care pathway and accounting for all the benefits (and disbenefits)that may accrue to them when a new test changes the pathway. Application of the framework allows a business case to be prepared for the test and identification of the quality metrics to ensure it is effective.

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Christa M Cobbaert

PhD, Clinical Chemist, EuSpLM, Professor of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine,Department of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC), Leiden (NL)

Christa Cobbaert is Professor of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Leiden. She is    heading the Department of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine of the Leiden University Medical Centre. 

Her scientific research focuses on test evaluation with emphasize on standardization, harmonization and trueness verification of medical test results, for the sake of improving patient management and patient care. In the domains of clinical proteomics and precision diagnostics she works on the selection, development and standardization of better protein biomarkers using quantitative clinical chemistry proteomics, as promising alternative for immunoassay- based tests. She has several appointments on (inter)national positions because of her expertise on metrological traceability of test results. She is vice chair of the International Federation of Clinical Chemistry (IFCC) Scientific Division EC and member of ISO TC 212/ working group 2. She chairs the European Federation of Laboratory Medicine (EFLM) working group on Test Evaluation, and at the national level she is heading the Dutch Calibration 2.000 initiative. She also leads the IFCC working group on standardization of serum apolipoproteins by mass spectrometry. She is an observer for the European Commission in the IVD working group of the Medical Device Coordination Group. Her scientific work is done in close collaboration with international colleagues and has resulted in ca. 180 original publications.

Session: Scientific Session – Molecular Characterization of Protein measurands: its time has come. The apolipoprotein (a) example

Session Date: Thursday, 17thJune 2021

Lp(a) is a genetic risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Its causal association with myocardial infarction, stroke and peripheral arterial disease has been masked for about 15 years because of flawed immunoassays and incorrect assumptions regarding the chemical composition of this particle. Therefore, the expression of Lp(a) particle concentrations in mass units is metrologically inappropriate. Assays that allow direct measurement with molecular characterization of the protein measurands of interest are keyfor guaranteeing metrological traceability. Mass spectrometry using LC-MRM-MS allows molecular characterization of the apolipoprotein(a) measurand and enables accurate quantitation in molar units, unaffected by the apo(a) size polymorphism and glycosylation. Envisioned traceability of apo(a) to SI can only be accomplished with an unequivocally molecularly defined protein measurand, well selected calibrators and the consistent use of molar units.

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Ana-Maria Simundic

Prof. Ana-Maria Simundic has received her graduate and postgraduate education at the Faculty of Pharmacy and Medical Biochemistry at the Zagreb University where she currently holds a professor position at the department of Medical Biochemistry. She is also teaching at the Tuzla University and Dubrovnik International University.

Prof. Simundic is currently employed at the Department of Medical Laboratory Diagnostics at the Clinical Hospital Sveti Duh in Zagreb, where she works as the Department Head. She was the President of the Croatian Society of Medical Biochemistry and Laboratory Medicine 2012-2018. Until the end of 2017, she has served as the Editor-in-chief of the journal Biochemia Medica, published by Croatian society of Medical Biochemistry and Laboratory Medicine. She now holds a Senior Editor position in that Journal.

Prof. Simundic has also reached wide international recognition with her engagement in the European Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (EFLM) over the years, in her role of Executive Board Secretary (2011-2017), as the chair of the Working group for Preanalytical Phase (WG-PRE)  (2012-2018), Vice President of the EFLM (2018-2019), and currently as the President of EFLM (2020-2021). In her capacity of the chair of the WG-PRE, Prof. Simundic has been the chair of the Organizing Committee of the past four highly successful Conferences in Preanalytical phase, which took place in Parma (2011), Zagreb (2013), Porto (2015), Amsterdam (2017) and Zagreb (2019), as well as the chair of the Scientific Committees of the Conferences in Preanalytical phase in Zagreb (2013), Porto (2015), Amsterdam (2017) and Zagreb (2019).

She was awarded with the Best Young Scientist award (2000) and Best Research award (2011) by the Croatian Society of Medical Biochemistry and Laboratory Medicine, with the Per Hyltoft Petersen Award (2012) by the Slovak Society of Laboratory Medicine and with the Honorary membership of the Hungarian society for Laboratory medicine (2012) and Italian society for Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory medicine (2020). In 2015 she was among the Top 100 Powerlist of the British journal: The pathologist. Prof. Simundic has authored or co-authored numerous peer reviewed manuscripts. Her research activities focus on quality management and preanalytical phase.

Brief overview of the talk

Quality of the preanalytical phaseThe aim of this lecture is to address some unresolved challenges and offer a glimpse into the future of preanalytics. Preanalytical phase has been recognised as a major source of variability already couple of decades ago. Major focus in preanalytical research was initially on understanding the mechanisms and effects of various preanalytical sources of variability. Many of the publications at that time were focused on determining the frequency of preanalytical errors. This led to the full understanding of the size of the problem. It became clear that preanalytical phase is the most vulnerable part of the total testing process and there was a common understanding that we as a profession have the responsibility to address this issue with great care.

What was not so sure at that time was the link between the preanalytical errors and patient outcome. It is clear today that every improvement in preanalytical phase will not necessarily lead to the reduction of the frequency of diagnostic errors and better patient outcome. The key question is which preanalytical errors have major contribution to patient outcome. This question has become the focus of preanalytical research during the last decade or so. There is now growing understanding among laboratory professionals that preanalytical studies should aim to address such issues by showing how and to what extent preanalytical variability affects patient well-being. Clearly, we need high quality outcome studies which employ evidence-based metrics to measure not only the effects of various preanalytical errors on test results, but also on the patient outcome and healthcare expenses. We need good studies to demonstrate to what extent falsely elevated or decreased values may affect medical decision making, quality of patient care and associated costs. Future studies need to be well designed and their protocols standardized in order to increase their transparency and assure transferability of results.

Working group for Preanalytical Phase (WG-PRE) of the European Federation for Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (EFLM) has been established in 2011 to promote the importance of the quality of the preanalytical phase and contribute to the standardization and harmonization of some critical activities in the preanalytical phase. WG-PRE has over the years produced a number of recommendations and guidance documents, for some major preanalytical issues such as: venous blood sampling, patient identification, patient preparation along with the definition for the fasting state, sample stability, demand management, detection and management of haemolysis, quality assurance for serum indices etc. In this lecture I provide an overview of the past and future preanalytical issues, give some guidance on how to manage preanalytical issues and propose the agenda for the future.

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Jonathan Kay

Jonathan Kay spent most of his career as a Consultant Chemical Pathologist in Oxford. He is now Chair of the Faculty of Clinical Informatics, andwas previously Clinical Informatics Director of NHS England and Professor of Health Informatics at University College London and City University London.

He was a founder of the ACB Mailgroup, AssayFinder and Lab Tests Online UK and has chaired the Informatics Committee of the Royal College of Pathologists, the Scientific Developments Subcommittee of the ACB and the Academy of Royal Colleges Information Group.

His research interests include the process of clinical investigation, knowledge management, and everyday technology at the point of care. But unfortunately he keeps getting involved in data standards when he’d rather be walking, cycling or acting.

Brief overview of the talk

The weak points in the request-report cycle are well understood. Are theright investigations done on the right patients at the right time? Do the right reports reach the right clinicians at the right time in the right medium? Are they then interpreted appropriately?

But improvements to all of these are not made in a simple unchanging environment. Laboratories are being herded into networks, in England the NHS is facing a reorganisation including standalone diagnostic centres, patient empowerment demands different information flows, and novel analytical technology provides bothnew opportunities and new challenges. Clinicians are under greater pressure than ever, and the data burden of investigation is repeatedly identified as a major component.

Fortunately we have some excellent tools in our toolbox: autoidentification technology, knowledge management, decision support systems, easy fast cheap data networking, and handheld and workstation devices that are widely used in every other aspect of work and play. But none of these implement themselves. Laboratory medicine should extendits responsibilities across the whole process, implement quality management in the way that we have done for analysis for half a century, and support regulatory systems that deliver what patients and clinician need regardless of where particular steps take place.

As always identification and transfer of good practice is as important as original inventions.

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William Wade

William Wade has been Professor of Oral Microbiology at King's College London since 1996. He is also an Adjunct Professor at the Forsyth Institute, Cambridge, USA. He has previously held academic appointments at the Unversities of Wales and Bristol and at Queen Mary University of London.

He has been a central figure in the development and application of methods for the characterisation of the oral microbiome in health and disease. He has particular interests in the cultivation of previously uncultivated bacteria and the development and evaluation of antimicrobials and pre- and probiotics for the prevention and treatment of oral diseases. He has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals and obtained grant funding from UK Research Councils, the US National Institutes of Health and major charities including the Wellcome Trust. He has also worked closely with Industry on translational projects to develop new oral care products.

Brief overview of the talk

Humans harbour complex communities of microorganisms including bacteria, archaea, fungi, virusesand protozoa. There are as many bacterial cells as there are human cells in the body. Each site in the body has a characteristic microbiota. Each individual has their own version of the microbiome which is relatively stable. The normal microbiome confers health benefits to the human host such as colonisation resistance and the appropriate development of the immune system. Abnormal microbiota composition, or dysbiosis, is associated with several diseases and conditions but cause and effect can be difficult to establish. Replacement of the normal microbiota in C. difficile disease by faecal microbiota transplantation has been shown to be an effective treatment. Because of the variation between individuals, microbiomics poses challenges for use in diagnostic tests but there is potential for application in personalised medicine.

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Huub Van Rossum

Huub van Rossum is a specialist in laboratory medicine and clinical chemistry at the Netherlands Cancer Institute. He has a background in analytical chemistry and pharmaceutical sciences and followed his training for becoming a specialist in laboratory medicine in The Bronovo hospital in The Hague, Leiden University Medical Center (Netherlands) and Stanford Medical Center (USA). Next, he worked for about a year in the University Medical Center in Utrecht on the implementation of best practice QC.

In 2015 he started his company Huvaros (www.huvaros.com) that markets MA Generator, an application that supports the laboratory specific optimization and validation of patient-based real-time QC. Since 2014 Huub works as a laboratory specialist in the Netherlands Cancer Institute – Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Hospital in Amsterdam. Here he is responsible, together with his colleague, for all routine clinical diagnostics including chemistry, immunochemistry, haematology and blood transfusion. His current research focuses on patient-based real-time quality control, the development and improvement of cancer biomarkers, diagnostic validation of longitudinal (tumour) biomarkers and implementation of these in routine clinical practice.

Session: Patient based real time quality control

Session Date: Thursday 17th June 2021

In the last couple of years new insights in the understanding and practical application of patient based real time quality control (PBRTQC) have been obtained. PBRTQCdiffers in several ways from statistical internal QC and combining both techniques allows improved analytical quality assurance and a more (cost-)efficient QC plan. Challenges for laboratories are how to obtain proper laboratory specific settings, how to intergrade these new techniques with standard QC and how to operate PBRTQCin routine practice. Recently,tools and documentation that addresses these issues has become available for medical laboratories, amongst others via an IFCC working group. This talk will briefly overview these recent developments, increase the understanding and potential application of PBRTQC techniques and to provide guidance when interested in implementing patient-based real-time QC on medical labs.

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David Gonzalez de Castro

PhD FRCPath

David obtained his PhD in the field of molecular diagnostics of haematological malignancies in Salamanca, Spain.

He moved to Leeds to expand his research in multiple myeloma as a Research Fellow. In 2004, he obtained a position at The Royal Marsden Hospital and The Institute of Cancer Research in London as a Clinical Scientist to lead the Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory. David has been involved in several translational research projects, particularly in the study of predictive and prognostics molecular biomarkers in haematological and solid tumours.

He has been one of the principal investigators on the CR-UK stratified medicine programme since 2011, working in close collaboration with the pharmaceutical and biotech industry to deliver personalised medicine for cancer patients using genomics analyses. In 2016 he was appointed Professor of Genomic Medicine at Queen’s University Belfast and leads the Genomics and Bioinformatics teams in the Precision Medicine Centre. He also works as a Consultant Clinical Scientist and Lead Scientist for Molecular Diagnostics at the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust. His research is centred around molecular biomarker analysis and developing genomic stratification tools for precision medicine and using circulating biomarkers to better classify and monitor disease.

Brief overview of the talk

It has been just over a decade since scientists sequenced the first cancer genome and, since then, the effect of genomics in clinical practice has completely revolutionised cancer care. With faster drug development programmes and the implementation of genomic medicine in laboratories across the world, cancer patients are now routinely screened for a range of genomic markers that dictate their treatment and can frequently lead to a significant longer life expectancy and better quality of life than ever before. However, implementation of clinical genomic testing in cancer is not without its challenges, andcareful consideration of pre-analytical and testing strategies is needed. In this session we will review the main applications of cancer genomics in clinical care, with examples of impact on clinical care and outcomes in a variety of tumour types.

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Danielle B Freedman

MB BS, FRCPath., EuSpLM

Consultant Chemical Pathologist & Associate Physician in Clinical Endocrinology, Director of Pathology, and  is now Joint Medical Director of Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (Since April 2020).  She was previously the Medical Director of the Luton & Dunstable University Hospital from 2005 to 2010. 

She trained in medicine at the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine, University of London, and then went on for further training in Clinical Biochemistry and Endocrinology both at the Royal Free Hospital and the Middlesex Hospital, University of London.

Nationally, in the UK, she was elected Vice President of Royal College of Pathologists (RCPath) (2008 - 2011) and sat on RCPath Executive and Council (2005 – 11). 

She was a National member of the Association for Clinical Biochemistry and Laboratory Medicine (ACB Council 2011 to 2015).  Currently she is a UK member of the European Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (EFLM) Working Group on Post Analytic Phases 2018 to 2021.

She is the Chair of Lab Tests Online Board UK (2012 - ) A Peer reviewed, Non Commercial , Patient Centered website – resource for patients and public

Her main interests include clinical endocrinology, point of care testing and, importantly, the value of   laboratory testing with regard to patient safety and patient outcome.

She has over 100 publications in peer review journals including Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA and Annals of Clinical Biochemistry in her areas of interest, as well as 10 book chapters.She is a frequently invited speaker both nationally and internationally on the above topics.  She won the ‘Outstanding Speaker’ award in 2009 from the American Association of Clinical Chemistry (AACC) and again in 2015.  Nominated as one of the TOP 100 International Power List of Influential Laboratory Medicine Professionals ( November 2015).

In July 2018, she was awarded the very prestigious award of Honorary Membership of the Association of Clinical Biochemistry and Laboratory Medicine for her International work in Laboratory Medicine.

In her spare time, she likes classic cars, modern art and rock music from the 70’s and 80’s.

Brief overview of the talk

This is an extremely popular session and has been running well over 10 years at FOCUS, which is now called UKMEDLAB. Clinical cases that have been submitted by members of the ACB for UKMEDLAB are reviewed, and usually up to 8 clinical cases are chosen. Those successful candidates are asked if they would like to present them in an anonymised interactive format on the Friday at UKMEDLAB.Each of the clinical cases will have at least 4-5 questions posed to the audience, each with a choice of 4 answers and some questions may have more than 1 correct answer. The audience are required to select various options in the responseto the questions based on the clinical presentation of the patient and/or the laboratory results.The cases are there to demonstrate the importance of the clinical interface and the value of the laboratory professional providing interpretative aspects of the laboratory medicine service.The audience themselves then vote for the first and second prize for the best presentations. The prizes will then be awarded at the end of the session.

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Mahnaz Abbasian

Education:

BSc in Cellular and Molecular Biology

MSc in Molecular Genetics (University of Leicester)

Area of expertise:

Manufacturing GMP grade CAR T-cells advanced therapy medicinal products for haematological malignancies

Area of interest:

Development and optimisation of cellular therapies for haematological malignancies

Current post:

I am anacademic senior GMP scientist at the University College London. I have manufactured over 70 CAR T-cell products for five-phase I clinical trials for adults and pediatrics since 2017. I have been recently nominated to lead two CAR T-cell manufacturing teams.

Brief overview of the talk

In my session I would like to cover a step-by-step explanation of the manufacturing of chimeric antigenreceptor (CAR) T-cells at the UCL. CAR T-cells are ‘living drugs’ with the capacity to migrate, proliferate and kill cognate-antigen expressing target cells in vivo.

CAR T cell therapies proved to be effective in the treatment of haematological malignancies in several phase I and II trials. To generate CAR T cells, patient-(autologous) or donor-derived (allogeneic) T cells are modified to express a CAR. The CAR is a chimeric construct containing at least one signalling domain of the T cell receptor and a single chain variable fragment (scFv).

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Charles Van Heyningen

I studied biochemistry and medicine in London and obtained postgraduate experience in paediatrics. I then followed specialty training in clinical biochemistry in London at St George's, the Westminsterand Kingston Hospitals. I worked as a consultant chemical pathologist in Liverpool and Southport from 1986 until 2013. My special interests include paediatric biochemistry, endocrinology and metabolism and medical education.

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Oliver Clifford Mobley

After gaining a degree in Chemistry from the University of Oxford, I trained as a Clinical Biochemist at St George's Hospital from 2007-2010, completing the MSc at UCL and training placements around south London. From 2010-2017 I worked as a Clinical Scientist in London, first at the Royal Free Hospital, and then at UCLH, where I had a specialist interest in renal stones and hyperoxaluria. I moved to Bristol in 2017, where I now work at the Bristol Royal Infirmary as a Principal Clinical Scientist.

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Sally Kerr

Sally Kerr is a Clinical Biochemist based at Luton and Dunstable University Hospital, part of Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. She studied Biochemistry at the University of Oxford (MBiochem) and then trained as a Clinical Biochemist through theScientist Training Programme. During this time, she was mainly based at Luton and Dunstable University Hospital and completed an MSc in Clinical Science (Blood Sciences) at the University of Manchester.

From 2018 –2021, Sally was ACB East of England Trainee Representative and sat on both the ACB Trainees Committee and ACB Southern Region Committee as part of this role. Sally has developed a particular interest in quality improvement and how the laboratory can add value, including reflex and reflective testing.

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Nathan Cantley

Dr Nathan Cantley is a Chemical Pathology ST2 trainee working in North Bristol NHS Trust. He has interests in big data, medical education and inherited metabolic disorders.

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Niamh Horton

Niamh is a Senior Clinical Biochemist at Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust. Niamh completed her STP training last September and trained at the Mid Cheshire NHS Foundation Trust after undertaking placements across the Northwestof England, including her elective placement at The Walton Centre in Liverpool. Prior to starting the STP Niamh completed a PhD investigating Circadian regulation of Redox homeostasis at the University of Liverpool.

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Tahir Pillay

Prof Tahir Pillay is full Professor and Head of the Department of Chemical Pathologyand overall Pathology Head, University of Pretoria, Honorary Professor of Chemical Pathology, University of Cape Town (UCT). He is President of the South African Association for Clinical Biochemistry and Laboratory Medicine(SAACB). He is also Chair of the Communications and PublicationDivision(CPD)of the International Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (IFCC), the first person from the African continent to lead a division of the IFCC since its inception in 1952. He was previously head of Chemical Pathology at the University of Cape Town and Deputy Vice Chancellor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal; Deputy Director, Institute of Cell Signalling, University of Nottingham, UK.

He is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Clinical Pathology. Prof Pillay has anMBChB cum laudefrom the University of Natalanda PhD in biochemistry/molecular biologyfrom the University of Cambridge. Hecompleted his postgraduate specialist training at Imperial College, Londonand postdoctoral trainingin molecular and cellular endocrinologyat University of California San Diego.He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists, Londonand College of Pathologists, SA. Prof Pillay’s research publications spansmolecular cell biology of insulin signalling and insulin resistance, molecular modelling of ligand-receptor complexes and development of new diagnostic probes for laboratory diagnostics using recombinant DNA technology.He has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the Juvenile Diabetes International Fellowship, the American Foundation of Clinical Research outstanding postdoctoral award, the Wellcome Trust Senior Clinical Fellowship, Professors Prize from the Association for Clinical Biochemistry, UK and the Senior Researcher award from the South African Association for Clinical BiochemistryHe ispioneeringthe application of single domain antibodies/nanobodies in pathology and laboratory medicine.His group received the first prize in the 2020 GAP Innovation awardsrun by the Innovation Hub and Emory University Goizueta Business School for the development of a nanobody based test for Covid19.

Darmiga Thayabaran

Dr Darmiga Thayabaran is a Core Medical Trainee at the Whittington Health NHS Trust. After qualifying from the University of Oxford, Darmiga began her training in South Wales and has since worked in clinical and research posts in Edinburgh, London and New Zealand. She has an interest in medical education and quality improvement.

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Rachel Griffiths

No bio provided

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Chris Pitt

Dr Christopher Pitt is a principal biochemist in NHS Ayrshire & Arran and was previously a lecturer in data and statistics in Coventry. More recently, he was sponsored by scot.gov in Quality Improvement science and was there described as a recovering academic. He now contributes to Ayrshire’s QI Faculty. Chris is keen to explore new ways of using laboratory data in order to improve the care given to patients.

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Sumana Gidwani

Dr Sumana Gidwani is a Consultant Chemical Pathologist / Metabolic Medicine and Educational supervisor for Foundation trainees at the Northern health and Social Care Trust. Diabetes, lipids and obesity are her fields of interest. She is actively involvedin teaching undergraduate and postgraduate medical students as well as biomedical students and scientists. She is the lead for the Bowel Screening laboratory at Causeway Hospital, NHSCT

Neil Anderson

Neil is a Consultant Clinical Biochemist and the Clinical Director of Clinical Diagnostic services at University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire. In addition he is the Lead Healthcare Scientist for the Trust and holds a visiting Professorship at Coventry University.

He is passionate about Clinical Scientists taking a significant leadership role in Trusts and Healthcare systems in order to raise the profile of what we do and how we can influence every clinical pathway.
He would like to see Clinical Scientists and laboratories leading the translation of novel techniques and processes into practice and looking at the enhanced role that Clinical Biochemists can play in the direct delivery of patient care. 

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Martin Myers

Consultant Clinical Biochemist Lancashire Teaching Hospitals

Dr Myers is a consultant clinical biochemist at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (LTH), Royal Preston Hospital, having previously been the associate divisionalmedical director for pathology for 4 years and clinical director of pathology for 14 years. Dr Myers is also the lead scientist for the trust. He chairs the trust Point of Care Testing Committee.

Dr Myers is the Senior Clinical Advisor on the NHS Getting it Right First Time (GIRFT) for Pathology, a member of the Device Expert Advisory Committee (DEAC), chair of the MHRA IVD Expert Advisory Group and Expert Advisor on the DHSC Technology Validation Group (TVG).

Dr Myers has taken a lead role in a continuousprogram of pathology redesign, improving the clinical and operational effectiveness of pathology delivery while improving productivity. His interests include the use of automation, point of care testing and informatics in improving the quality of the diagnostic process and redesigning a pathology delivery that is patient focussed. He has translated the “Laboratory Anywhere” concept to ensure that diagnostics is delivered in a variety of locations both inside and outside the hospital ensuring that diagnostics are embedded in the patient pathway, rather than remote from the patient. He is involved in several projects for the direct delivery of diagnostics to BAME communities and vulnerable groups in the community and worked with the NHSE chief scientific officer’s team on the delivery of point of care diagnostics in patients with learning difficulties and patients experiencing mental health issues. He has also been involved in translating NICE diagnostic recommendations into service delivery models.

Dr Myershas worked on many clinical pathways where the introduction of novel decision diagnostics has improved the patient pathway and resulted in reduction in total pathway costs.

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Bernie Croal

Bernie graduated in Honours Physiology (1989) and Medicine (1992) from Glasgow University and went on to train in General Medicine (FRCP 1998) and Clinical Biochemistry (FRCPath 1999).

He moved to Aberdeen to take up an academic Senior Lecturer post in Health Services Research, obtaining an MSc (2000) and MD (2003) degree in Public Health and Health Services Research. He moved over to NHS Grampian in 2003 as Consultant and Clinical Director of Laboratory Medicine/Pathology. In 2009 he founded and was the first Clinical Lead of the Scottish Clinical Biochemistry Managed Diagnostic Network.

Over the last 10 years he has filled many roles at RCPath including Chairs of Scottish Council, the Clinical Biochemistry SAC, the Informatics Committee, the National Laboratory Medicine Catalogue and the Quality Assurance Management Group. He took up the role of RCPath Vice-President (2011-14) and was a member of Council/Exec for 10 consecutive years, as well as a member of both ACB and IBMS Councils at the same time.

His interest in Demand Optimisation stretches back to his MD work and he has chaired the Scottish Demand Optimisation Programme since 2015, now in implementation phase two. This work is now focused on development of an Atlas of variation and providing business intelligence data for CoVid recovery phases in Scotland. In 2020 he took up the role of President Elect for the Association for Clinical Biochemistry and Laboratory Medicine, and will become President in 2021.

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Rob Shorten

Chair of the ACB Microbiology Professional Committee

Rob is a Consultant Clinical Scientist in Microbiology at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. In addition to his role in providing clinical support, he is also the departmental lead for research, and is the audit lead for pathology. Rob has been an active member of the ACB MPC since soon after the Association for Clinical Microbiology (ACM) disbanded and joined the ACB. He has previously served on the ACB Scientific Committee.

Rob also has a keen interest in training and education. He is an honorary research associate at University College London and has been heavily involved in all aspects of the Scientist Training Programme (STP). With a research background in tuberculosis, and an interest in high consequence infectious diseases, Rob is a current member of the Advisory Committee on Dangerous Pathogens (ACDP). He also has an interest in multi drug-resistant infections and antimicrobial stewardship.

Brief overview of the talk

The SARS CoV-2 pandemic has shone a light on diagnostic laboratories, in particular the diagnosis of infectious diseases, like never before. Pathology laboratories and the Healthcare Scientists who work within them have performed heroically and continue todeliver at unprecedented levels. This presentation will attempt to layout the time line of SARS CoV-2 diagnostics in the UK from the collective experience of the Microbiology Professional Committee of the Association for Clinical Biochemistry and Laboratory Medicine. The session will highlight challenges, successes, opportunities, legacy, lessons learned, as well as wants and needs for the future.

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Jo E Martin

MA PhD RCPathME FIBMS(Hon) FRCPI(Hon) FRCPath Professor of Pathology, Queen Mary University of London, Hon Consultant Barts Health NHS, Specialty Advisor for Pathology NHS England and Improvement

Professor Martin qualified Cambridge University and London Hospital Medical College, has a University of London PhD and master’s in leadership. She has over 130 published papers including Nature group and Science journals and is Professor of Pathology at Queen Mary University London. She has very broad experience in healthcare management including responsibility for research and for the training and education of over 17,500 staff. She served on the Board of Barts Health NHS Trust. She is an award winning eCPD app designer and co-founder of Biomoti, a drug delivery development company. Her clinical specialist expertise is in the pathology of gastrointestinal motility disorders. National Clinical Director of Pathology for NHS England April 2013-16, Jo was President of the Royal College of Pathologists from November 2017-2020 and is now National Specialty Advisor for Pathology for NHS England and Improvement.

Brief overview of the talk

The Richards review is one of the most important strategic documents to have a merged in recent years in relation to the NHS. It is a wide-ranging view of the needs of the health sector in relation to diagnostics.

The need for investment into diagnostics, especially imaging and pathology, has never been greater. Improving access to diagnostics for the population is also addressedin this report and the creation of community diagnostic hubs has been a key focus in the recommendations. These recommendations have already started to be implemented with a large programme of investment.

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Tom Lewis

No bio provided

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Grainne Connolly

Grainne Connolly is a Consultant Chemical Pathologist in Belfast Health and Social Care Trust. She has an interest in all aspects of general clinical biochemistry and a particular interest in inherited metabolic disease and diabetes.

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Doris-Ann Williams

Doris-Ann Williams has been Chief Executive of BIVDA since October 2001. She has over 40 years’ experience in the IVD sector. She has held a variety of roles; initially in R&D and subsequently in commercial roles including international responsibilities. She has been involved in a number of Government steering groups and boards including the Pathology Quality Oversight Group.

Doris-Ann also works closely with other global IVD industry associations and in the UK as part of Life Sciences UK. She was awarded an MBE in January 2011 and was recognised as a Friend of the Royal College of Pathologists in November 2012 and as a Friend of the Association for Clinical Biochemistry in July 2015. Doris-Ann also was elected as a Vice President of the Parliamentary & Scientific Committee in 2015. Doris-Ann has particular interest in the role of diagnostic testing in the community and how diagnostics can help with mitigation of antimicrobial resistance.

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Lord Bethell

Lord Bethell of Romford was appointed as a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Health and Social Care on 9 March 2020. He was previously a Government Whip (Lord in Waiting) from July 2019 to March 2020. As the House of Lords minister, he is responsible for representing all health matters and legislation in the Upper House. He is also the junior minister supporting the health track of the G7 Summit.

Lord Bethell graduated from Edinburgh University with an MA(Hons). He worked as a journalist for national newspapers and then as a director of several media companies, including the Ministry of Sound. He sold his own communications firm in 2019.

Brief overview of the talk

Lord Bethell will give thanks for the support for the vital work being undertaken by members of the ACB and their contribution to T&T over the course of the pandemic.

Lord Bethell will then outline the topics he seeks to cover over ten-minutepresentation:

•T&T capability built throughout the pandemic

•The legacy T&T will leavebehind in terms of infrastructure, capability, future pandemic preparedness,and opportunity for precision medicine

•The future opportunities to improve collaboration between the ACB and T&T

To elaborate on these points, Lord Bethell will talk about the Pillar 2 lab network, which now consists of 10 labs across the UK and which has carried out 135 million tests to date. Lord Bethell will talk to the innovation that has been introduced to labs; the implementation of a genotyping reflex assay to detect known variants in the lab as well as cherry picking of positive samples and Sanger collaboration to sequence these.

Lord Bethell will then provide an update on his thinking around the legacy of the diagnostic capability that has been stood up across the programme; flexible gold standard testing that will provide uses for both precision medicine and future pandemic preparedness.

Lord Bethell will then outline the opportunities for greater collaboration with the ACB beyond the pandemic. Lord Bethell will talk to the strength of partnership between NHS, industry and academia and reflect on the impact this collaboration has had during the pandemic.

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Michael Osborn

Dr Michael Osborn studied medicine at Guys & St Thomas Hospitals, London qualifying in 1995. He became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons in 2000 and a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists in 2004. Currently he works as a consultant histopathologist for North West London Pathology at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, London were he is clinical lead. His working time is divided between post mortems, diagnostic gastrointestinal histopathology, bowel cancer screening and teaching. He runs anintercalatedBSc “Humanities, Philosophy & Law” at Imperial College, London. During the COVID-19 pandemic he and colleagues at Imperial College published work relating to findings in fatal COVID-19 infection. He was elected President of the Royal College of Pathologists (RCPath) in November 2020 having previously been on the RCPath council and having had a variety of college roles including chair of their Cellular Pathology Speciality Advisory Committee and Death Investigation Committee.

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William Morice

William G. Morice, II, M.D., Ph.D., is the Chair of the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN and the President of Mayo Clinic Laboratories (aka Mayo Medical Laboratories MML). Dr. Morice is also a Consultant in the Division of Hematopathology and served as the Chair of this Division from 2009 to 2015. He holds the academic rank of Professor of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology.

As an expert in diagnostic hematopathology, flow cytometry, and T and NK cell biology, among other topics, Dr. Morice is sought after as a national and international lecturer and visiting professor. Additionally, as an active educator and mentor, Dr. Morice teaches residents, fellows, and allied health staff the analytic approach to the diagnosis of benign and malignant hematolymphoid disorders.

Dr. Morice has written more than 160 peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and abstracts. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Biochemistry from Indiana University and earned his M.D./Ph.D. (Immunology) degrees from the Mayo Clinic Graduate School. Dr. Morice completed a preliminary residency year in internal medicine a combined residency program in anatomic pathology and clinical pathology, and fellowships in surgical pathology and hematopathology; all at Mayo Graduate School of Medicine.

Outside of work he enjoys time with his family, competitive cycling, and seeking to live life to the fullest.

Brief overview of the talk

The COVID-19 global pandemic brought on in late 2019 by the emergence of human infectivity of the coronavirus SARS-Co-V2 came almost a century after the similarly catastrophic global "Spanish flu" pandemic caused by the influenza virus H1N1. In the intervening period many tools have been introduced into the clinical and public health landscape such as serologic testing, PCR-based molecular testing of individual specimens, wastewater-based molecular epidemiology, and viral genomic sequencing. This lecture will explore what role, if any, these tools haveplayed in the clinical management of the disease and the public health response to the health crisis. In addition, the expanded access program for convalescent plasma which enabled the exploratory use this treatment for COVID-19 at the height of the pandemic in the United States will be reviewed. The lessons learned about this therapy and the emergency evaluation of new therapies in a health crisis will be discussed. At the summation, the experiences with the introduction of both diagnostic and therapeutic tools during the pandemic will be compared to provide insights into common themes and opportunities for improvement.

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Sarah Robinson

Sarah is a Consultant Clinical Scientist in Biochemistry and the Clinical Director for Pathology at Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Trust. The Trust is currently forming a greater networked pathology service with University Hospital of the North Midlands NHS Trust and she has played a key role in formation of this network and has a keen interest in solutions for networked laboratories.

Sarah was appointed ACB National Meeting’s Secretary in 2018 a role that involves the organisation of National Conferences which include Focus and FiLM. Prior to this she was the ACB Regional Audit Lead for the North West Region for 5 years.

Training and education of the future workforce is a key interest, she is an Honorary lecturer at Manchester University, teaching on the Clinical Biochemistry STP training scheme. She has also been involved in the organisation and hosting of national training courses for the ACB.

Other interests include improving Primary Care pathways through demand optimisation, IT driven pathway requesting solutions and improving access and pre-analytical solutions, and expanding roles of Clinical Scientists in wider healthcare.

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Marion Wood

No bio provided

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Kathryn Ryan

Kathryn isConsultant Chemical Pathologist in the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust. She trained in Chemical Pathology in the Northern Ireland Deanery and has work as a Consultant since 2006. She participates in Lipid, Diabetes and Inherited metabolic disease clinics.She has an interest in medical education and has an honorary contract with Queen’s University, Belfast where she delivers lectures on the undergraduate medical curriculum.

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Dimitris Grammatopoulos

No bio provided

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Neil Anderson

Neil is a Consultant Clinical Biochemist and the Clinical Director of Clinical Diagnostic services at University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire. In addition he is the Lead Healthcare Scientist for the Trust and holds a visiting Professorship at Coventry University.

He is passionate about Clinical Scientists taking a significant leadership role in Trusts and Healthcare systems in order to raise the profile of what we do and how we can influence every clinical pathway.
He would like to see Clinical Scientists and laboratories leading the translation of novel techniques and processes into practice and looking at the enhanced role that Clinical Biochemists can play in the direct delivery of patient care. 

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Sarah Robinson

Sarah is a Consultant Clinical Scientist in Biochemistry and the Clinical Director for Pathology at Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Trust. The Trust is currently forming a greater networked pathology service with University Hospital of the North Midlands NHS Trust and she has played a key role in formation of this network and has a keen interest in solutions for networked laboratories.

Sarah was appointed ACB National Meeting’s Secretary in 2018 a role that involves the organisation of National Conferences which include Focus and FiLM. Prior to this she was the ACB Regional Audit Lead for the North West Region for 5 years.

Training and education of the future workforce is a key interest, she is an Honorary lecturer at Manchester University, teaching on the Clinical Biochemistry STP training scheme. She has also been involved in the organisation and hosting of national training courses for the ACB.

Other interests include improving Primary Care pathways through demand optimisation, IT driven pathway requesting solutions and improving access and pre-analytical solutions, and expanding roles of Clinical Scientists in wider healthcare.

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Jane Pritchard

Jane is leading the delivery ACB’s strategy and ambition to become the voice of laboratory medicine representing and influencing the interests and professional development of healthcare scientists with government, industry, media and patients. Core themes of the strategy which will underpin all the association’s activities re innovation, environment and inclusion.

Graham Lee

Graham is a Consultant Clinical Biochemist at the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, National Cappagh Orthopaedic Hospital Dublin and Regional Midlands Hospital Mullingar, Ireland. He is also Associate Professor at University College Dublin where he is aco-ordinatorof an MSc course in Clinical and Diagnostics Biochemistry.

Graham was previous Chair of the ACB’s Republic of Ireland(ROI) region, the ACB ROI regional tutor and a past President of the Association of Clinical Biochemists in Ireland (ACBI). He was conference Chair of the organising committee for the ACBI’s 2019 national meeting and was part of the organisation committee for FiLM in 2019.

He has worked on several Irish national programmes including the National Clinical Programme for Cancer and the National Clinical Programme for Pathology. He has a keen interest in using laboratory data to help shape clinical practice, including the implementation of clinical testing protocols and quality improvement initiatives that supporttesting of requisite quality.

Bernie Croal

Bernie graduated in Honours Physiology (1989) and Medicine (1992) from Glasgow University and went on to train in General Medicine (FRCP 1998) and Clinical Biochemistry (FRCPath 1999).

He moved to Aberdeen to take up an academic Senior Lecturer post in Health Services Research, obtaining an MSc (2000) and MD (2003) degree in Public Health and Health Services Research. He moved over to NHS Grampian in 2003 as Consultant and Clinical Director of Laboratory Medicine/Pathology. In 2009 he founded and was the first Clinical Lead of the Scottish Clinical Biochemistry Managed Diagnostic Network.

Over the last 10 years he has filled many roles at RCPath including Chairs of Scottish Council, the Clinical Biochemistry SAC, the Informatics Committee, the National Laboratory Medicine Catalogue and the Quality Assurance Management Group. He took up the role of RCPath Vice-President (2011-14) and was a member of Council/Exec for 10 consecutive years, as well as a member of both ACB and IBMS Councils at the same time.

His interest in Demand Optimisation stretches back to his MD work and he has chaired the Scottish Demand Optimisation Programme since 2015, now in implementation phase two. This work is now focused on development of an Atlas of variation and providing business intelligence data for CoVid recovery phases in Scotland. In 2020 he took up the role of President Elect for the Association for Clinical Biochemistry and Laboratory Medicine, and will become President in 2021.

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Maurice O'Kane

Maurice O’Kane has been a consultant chemical pathologist for over 20 years. I am a member of the IFCC Committee ‘Value Proposition in Laboratory Medicine’ which aims to identify and improve the value that Laboratory Medicine brings tohealthcare. Other current professional roles include Director of the N. Ireland Clinical Research Network and Joint Editor-in Chief, Annals of Clinical Biochemistry. I was previously Director of Clinical Practice at the Association for Clinical Biochemistry and Laboratory Medicine. I am a visiting Professor at the School of Biomedical Sciences, Ulster University. Among my research interests are aspects of point-of-care testing and patient self-management in diabetes mellitus.

Session: Scientific Session –The Value Proposition for Laboratory Medicine

Session Date: Thursday 17th June 2021

IFCC Committee for the Value Proposition in Laboratory Medicine.
St John A, O’Kane M, Julicher P, Christenson R, Price CP.

The IFCC Committee for the Value Proposition in Laboratory Medicine is one of several initiatives that is attempting to both identify and improve the value that laboratory testing brings to healthcare. The work of the Committee is now focussing on the processes that take place when individual laboratories or healthcare providers agree to adopt a test and put it into routine practice, namely implementation. The latter which is about translating the benefits of a test as demonstrated in randomised controlled trials into a local and effective clinical pathway. The importance of this process is barely recognised and therefore is poorly performed leading to various consequences including significant and unwarranted variation in testing. The Committee has described an Implementation Framework aimed at improving the implementation process that includes recognition of all the stakeholders in a care pathway and accounting for all the benefits (and disbenefits)that may accrue to them when a new test changes the pathway. Application of the framework allows a business case to be prepared for the test and identification of the quality metrics to ensure it is effective.

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William Morice

William G. Morice, II, M.D., Ph.D., is the Chair of the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN and the President of Mayo Clinic Laboratories (aka Mayo Medical Laboratories MML). Dr. Morice is also a Consultant in the Division of Hematopathology and served as the Chair of this Division from 2009 to 2015. He holds the academic rank of Professor of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology.

As an expert in diagnostic hematopathology, flow cytometry, and T and NK cell biology, among other topics, Dr. Morice is sought after as a national and international lecturer and visiting professor. Additionally, as an active educator and mentor, Dr. Morice teaches residents, fellows, and allied health staff the analytic approach to the diagnosis of benign and malignant hematolymphoid disorders.

Dr. Morice has written more than 160 peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and abstracts. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Biochemistry from Indiana University and earned his M.D./Ph.D. (Immunology) degrees from the Mayo Clinic Graduate School. Dr. Morice completed a preliminary residency year in internal medicine a combined residency program in anatomic pathology and clinical pathology, and fellowships in surgical pathology and hematopathology; all at Mayo Graduate School of Medicine.

Outside of work he enjoys time with his family, competitive cycling, and seeking to live life to the fullest.

Brief overview of the talk

The COVID-19 global pandemic brought on in late 2019 by the emergence of human infectivity of the coronavirus SARS-Co-V2 came almost a century after the similarly catastrophic global "Spanish flu" pandemic caused by the influenza virus H1N1. In the intervening period many tools have been introduced into the clinical and public health landscape such as serologic testing, PCR-based molecular testing of individual specimens, wastewater-based molecular epidemiology, and viral genomic sequencing. This lecture will explore what role, if any, these tools haveplayed in the clinical management of the disease and the public health response to the health crisis. In addition, the expanded access program for convalescent plasma which enabled the exploratory use this treatment for COVID-19 at the height of the pandemic in the United States will be reviewed. The lessons learned about this therapy and the emergency evaluation of new therapies in a health crisis will be discussed. At the summation, the experiences with the introduction of both diagnostic and therapeutic tools during the pandemic will be compared to provide insights into common themes and opportunities for improvement.

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Donna Fullerton

Dr Donna Fullerton is a Consultant Clinical Scientist and Laboratory Lead for Inborn Errors of Metabolism at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust.Her involvement with a case of Fabry’s Disease as a trainee sparked her interest in Metabolic Disease, leading to completion of a HST post at Birmingham Children’s Hospital and appointment to a clinical scientist post in the metabolic laboratory at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust.She is the current Secretary of the British Inherited Metabolic Disease Group (BIMDG) following a seven year term as Treasurer and previous role as clinical scientist trainee representative.Donna is the current DeputyTraining Lead for MetBioNet and the Nottingham laboratory representative on the MetBioNet stakeholders group.

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Paul Hamilton

Dr Paul Hamilton is a Clinical Lecturer at Queen’s University Belfast and a Consultant Chemical Pathologist at Belfast Health and Social Care Trust. He has an interest in cardiovascular and bone health, as well as all aspects of general biochemistry.

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Claire Hart

Claire Hart is a Clinical Scientist at Sheffield Children’s Hospital who has spent 20 years working in paediatrics and specialising in Biochemical Genetics in particular, in Sheffield, Singapore and Manchester.

Brief overview of the talk

Awareness of IEMs in adults is poor andtesting piecemeal at best. The aim of this session is to improve knowledge and understanding of the types of disorders that present in adulthood, the ways in which they present, things to look out for and common mistakes / pitfalls.

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Brona Roberts

Brona Roberts is a consultant chemical pathologist in Belfast Health and Social Care Trust with a particular interest in metabolic bone disease and CV risk management.

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Grainne Connolly

Grainne Connolly is a Consultant Chemical Pathologist in Belfast Health and Social Care Trust. She has an interest in all aspects of general clinical biochemistry and a particular interest in inherited metabolic disease and diabetes.

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Kathryn Ryan

Kathryn isConsultant Chemical Pathologist in the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust. She trained in Chemical Pathology in the Northern Ireland Deanery and has work as a Consultant since 2006. She participates in Lipid, Diabetes and Inherited metabolic disease clinics.She has an interest in medical education and has an honorary contract with Queen’s University, Belfast where she delivers lectures on the undergraduate medical curriculum.

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Christos Varounis

Christos Varounis is a cardiologist and associate medical director of medical and scientific affairs for Abbott’s Core Diagnostics business. He is responsible for clinical research activities and for the development of medical educational programs both internally and externally in the cardiac space.

He is a member of the heart failure association and the European association of preventive cardiology of the European society of cardiology (ESC) as well as a member of the European Heart Academy allumni (ESC).

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Anna Eichhorn

WORK HISTORY ​

Product Manager Gastroenterology 
Immundiagnostik AG, Germany

Systemingenieur – Particle Therapy​
Siemens Healthineers​, Germany

EDUCATION

PhD​
In-Vivo Feasibility Study  and Developments for Cardiac Arrhythmia Ablation using Scanned Carbon Ions​
Biophysics Department, GSI​, Germany

Master und Bachelor of Science​
Physik​
TU Darmstadt, Germany

Industry Workshop 
Wednesday 16th June 13:00 - 13:40 

Turbidimetry: New Technology – New Products – New Opportunities

Stool diagnostics is becoming more and more important for patients suffering from different gastrointestinal diseases. Due to increasing sample numbers new methods are required for a faster and more efficient workflow in the laboratories.

One excellent option is switching from ELISAs to turbidimetric assays as those have much shorter times to result, higher throughput and allow a cost reduction. BIOHIT Healthcare is expanding the product portfolio with three new particle-enhances turbidimetric assays for the determination of calprotectin, pancreatic elastase and haemoglobin in human stool samples. All three parameters can be determined from the same sample extract to make stool analytics more convenient.

Are you interested in more details about the new product line? Join our Industry Symposium on the 16^th of June at 1 pm to learn more.  

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Kamaljit Chatha

Director of Publications and Communications

Kam is a Consultant Clinical Biochemist and Deputy Director of the Bowel Cancer Screening Midlands and North West Hub.  She is also a Clinical Lecturer for the University of Warwick.  Kam started her career in Laboratory Medicine as a Biomedical Scientist in 2002 after completing a BSc in Biochemistry and Pharmacology.  As a Biomedical Scientist she then went on to obtain an MSc in Biomedical Scientists (2006) and switched to the Clinical Scientist training program in 2006.  Since then she has obtained an MSc in Clinical Biochemistry (2009) and FRCPath (2016).

Kam has a keen interest in research and development has a number of publications that covers the novel and innovative use of biomarkers to detect chronic disease such as cardiovascular disease and renal disease.  She has also an interest in screening, as indicated by her work in Bowel Cancer Screening, but also in the early detection of cardiovascular disease in high risk ethnic groups and the use of cell-free DNA in Downs Syndrome Screening.

During her time as a member of the ACB, Kam has held a number of regional positions; Public Engagement and Meetings Secretary, for the West Midlands region.

Kam is keen to promote the excellent work being done by ACB members and ensure the profession is recognised for its contribution to the changing testing landscape.  Kam hopes to develop the communication with and for all ACB members and the publication strategy to convey the important scientific knowledge we possess.

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