6th NHS Pathology Conference: Improving NHS Diagnostics

Clinical Diagnostics & Medical Sciences

08:30 am
04 Nov, 2025
The Studio, 3rd Floor, 7 Cannon St, Birmingham B2 5EP

6th NHS Pathology Conference: Improving NHS Diagnostics

Clinical Diagnostics & Medical Sciences

08:30 am
04 Nov, 2025
The Studio, 3rd Floor, 7 Cannon St, Birmingham B2 5EP

Job titles includes

Operational Manager

Cellular Pathology Manager

Senior Programme Manager for Diagnostics

National Pathology Manager

Director of Pathology Business Unit

Senior Business Change Analyst

Pathology Network Director

Head of Pathology Procurement

Managing Director

Director of Ops

Directorate Manager - Cellular Pathology

Head of Pathology

Pathology General Manager

Medical Doctor

70
Delegates Registered

Organisations Involved

North Cumbria NHS Trust

Wye Valley NHS Trust

Thames Valley Cancer Alliance

Circle Health Group

West Hertfordshire NHS Hospital

University Hospitals Birmingham

University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust

Sheffield Teaching Hospital

North West London Pathology

North West London Pathology

Liverpool Clinical Laboratories

South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw Pathology

Integrated Pathology Solutions

Wheatley Care

Current Climate & Challenges

NHS pathology services are amid a critical bottleneck: backlogs, IT failures, and workforce shortages are all undermining reliability and patient safety. An IT upgrade failure in West Yorkshire caused 10,000 blood tests lost or delayed, exposing patients to potential harm.

Histopathology labs are struggling to meet turnaround KPIs—only 98% of tests processed within 10 days in pilot sites—due to staff shortages and legacy infrastructure.

Meanwhile, digital pathology adoption varies greatly across regions, and reliance on outdated messaging standards (UN‑EDIFACT/Read Code) prevents full interoperability and slows result delivery.

Timeliness of the Event

Launched 3 July 2025, the NHS 10‑Year Health Plan outlines three bold shifts—hospital → community, analogue → digital, sickness → prevention—and identifies diagnostics as a key enabler.

The Institute of Biomedical Science states pathology underpins early detection and equitable screening, yet stresses that community services and home-testing require quality governance and workforce investment.

With a £3.4 bn capital commitment to data and tech from 2025/26, there's now funding to drive digital pathology transformation. This summit arrives at a pivotal moment—when national ambition meets local implementation needs.

Key Subjects Covered

  • Digital transformation: Scaling digital histopathology, AI‑aided slide reporting, full adoption of FHIR standards, and retiring legacy messaging frameworks.
  • Workload & staffing resilience: Addressing workforce shortages through career pipelines, advanced roles, and training consistent with the NHS Workforce Plan.
  • Infrastructure & resilience: Mitigating IT failure risks by strengthening lab information management systems, service continuity, and cybersecurity.
  • Governance & standards: Ensuring accreditation, quality control, and interoperability across community and hospital settings, aligning with IBMS guidance.
  • Operational innovation: Embedding digital workflow pilots—with real-world pathology hubs extending services into neighbourhood centres as specified by the Plan.
  • Patient safety & backlogs: Creating real‑time monitoring, early-warning models, and recovery strategies to prevent issues like the West Yorkshire test losses.

Why Attend

This summit is vital for laboratory directors, ICS commissioners, biomedical scientists, digital leads, and risk managers:

  • Understand strategic alignment: Learn how pathology services can underpin the NHS Plan’s shift to community-based, digitally enabled care.
  • Explore digital-first blueprints: Hear from labs leading digital transformation—including AI-supported histopathology and FHIR migration.
  • Acquire resilience tools: Get templates for IT risk management, lab system redundancy planning, and cyber incident response.
  • Strengthen workforce strategies: Discover workforce development models drawing on advanced roles and local training initiatives.
  • Ensure governance excellence: Share frameworks for quality assurance, accreditation, and governance in both hospital and community settings.
  • Network across sectors: Connect with national bodies (IBMS, RCPath), tech providers, NHS leadership, and frontline lab teams delivering diagnostics.
  • Leave with implementation guides: Walk away with digital transformation roadmaps, AI integration models, workforce plans, and quality regimes tailored for pathology.

Headline Sponsor

Who will Attend

  • CEO’s
  • Consultant Pathologists – across all specialities
  • CTO’s
  • Haematologists
  • Heads of IT
  • Heads of Pathology
  • Heads/Directors of Diagnostic Services
  • Heads/Directors of Pathology Services
  • Heads/Directors of Transformation
  • Heads/Managers of Laboratory Services
  • Histopathologists
  • Senior Pathologists

The programme

08:30

Registration & Networking

Registration & Networking

09:30

Chair Opening Address (Chair TBC)

Welcome and framing of the day: an urgent call to modernise pathology in the context of the NHS 10-Year Plan, diagnostic backlogs, and digital transformation.

09:40

Keynote Presentation - The Role of Pathology in Delivering NHS 2035 (Speaker TBC)

A national health leader outlines how pathology underpins prevention, early diagnosis, and the hospital-to-community shift at the heart of the NHS’s long-term strategy. Includes reflections on digital infrastructure investment and patient safety.

10:00

Pathology Backlogs and Recovery Strategies Panel Discussion

NHS trust leaders and pathology managers explore the systemic causes behind delays in testing, results, and treatment. The session will present proven backlog reduction models, from rapid-response teams to community diagnostics.

Panellists TBC

10:30

Main Sponsor - Source LDPath

Main Sponsor - Source LDPath

10:50

Morning Break & Networking

Morning Break & Networking

11:50

Chair Morning Reflection

Chair Morning Reflection

11:55

Case Study - ProfilerLive

Case Study - ProfilerLive

12:15

Case Study - Aiforia

Case Study - Aiforia

12:35

Fireside Chat: Building a Sustainable Pathology Workforce (Speaker TBC)

Leading pathology educators and NHS Workforce Plan contributors discuss how to attract and retain biomedical scientists, support training, and embrace advanced practice in the lab.

12:55

Case Study - InterSystems

Case Study - InterSystems

13:15

Lunch & Networking

Lunch & Networking

14:00

Chair Afternoon Address

Chair Afternoon Address

14:05

Case Study - Diagnexia

Case Study - Diagnexia

14:25

Keynote Presentation - Digital Pathology at Scale – Success and Barriers (Speaker TBC)

A practical look at digital pathology rollouts across NHS trusts. Focus on AI-assisted reporting, digital slide integration, and infrastructure requirements—plus the lessons from partial implementations.

14:45

Case Study

Case Study

15:05

Keynote Presentation - Data, Governance & Safety in Pathology IT (Speaker TBC)

With IT failures affecting patient care, this session explores how trusts can safeguard results integrity, integrate FHIR standards, and align with national digital risk frameworks.

15:25

Workshop: Pathology as a Catalyst for NHS Transformation (Speaker TBC)

This interactive, solution-focused workshop will engage attendees in small group exercises and facilitated discussions to explore how pathology can actively drive NHS transformation in line with the 10-Year Plan.

Using real-world case challenges (e.g. IT failures, workforce gaps, digital scaling), participants will co-design action plans for embedding pathology in community diagnostic centres, strengthening governance, and expanding digital capability.

The session will close with a shared “pathology transformation blueprint” compiled from group insights.

15:35

Hot Buffet Food & Drinks

Hot Buffet Food & Drinks

17:00

End of Day

End of Day

Convenzisvents

Your Pass Includes....

  • Access to a leading conference speaker programme
  • Interactive Q&A sessions
  • Fireside interviews
  • Cross-sector best practice
  • Meet the supplier opportunities
  • Hot breakfast & Lunch included
  • Access to post event drinks reception and Street food

Tickets For NHS Senior Managers

We have an invite only option for NHS Senior Managers for our conference, to see if you qualify for a complimentary place please click the button below.

Register your place

Book tickets

Ticket
Price
Quantity
Charity, Not for Profit and University (In-Person)
£203.99 excl VAT
Limited places
0
Private Sector (In-Person)
£500.00 excl VAT
Limited places
0
Free NHS Ticket
£0.00 No VAT
Limited places
0

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