INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Responding to challenges, realising opportunities: Clinisys Customer Summit
Clinisys WinPath laboratory information system customers recently gathered at The Belfry to discuss the major challenges facing pathology, and the role of technology in addressing them. Here, Matthew Fouracre reports from a packed, but inspiring, two-day event.
Delegates to the Clinisys Customer Summit 2024 arrived at The Belfry to find it is expanding. The famous golf resort is adding 140 bedrooms and building what it describes as a “high spec, high-tech” ballroom with a capacity of more than 600 people. This is just as well, because
the annual event has become so large that it has been split in two for a year. Clinisys WinPath customers packed the summit, while users of the ICE order communications and results reporting system will attend their own, dedicated event in the autumn.
Back at The Belfry, how to create the “high spec, high-tech” pathology services that will be needed to address future demand while meeting the expectations of staff and users was a key theme. Because, as Dr Bernie Croal, president of The Royal College of Pathologists, told a session on day one, healthcare and the laboratories that serve it are facing some big challenges.
An emerging crisis in pathology? Dr Croal argued that most of these challenges are caused by “very limited” resources and capacity, which has led to “gridlock on pathways” and rising waiting lists and times, even in priority areas, such as A&E and cancer. Pathology services have held up better than some, he suggested, but there is an “emerging crisis” caused by a shortage of money, rising demand, supply chain issues, and workforce shortages, which the RCPath has created a plan to address. Technology, he went on, “will be part of the solution” – not because it will take jobs, but because it will help people to work more efficiently. Dr Croal noted that politicians are particularly interested in artificial intelligence (AI) to smooth workflows and handle routine work. However, he said, AI needs firm foundations, including functional laboratory information systems, good governance, and digital pathology. Plus, security – something that has acquired a new salience following the recent ransomware attack in London.
Security has moved front of mind
The Belfry is expanding, which is good news for Clinisys and its Annual Customer Summit events.
WWW.PATHOLOGYINPRACTICE.COM SEPTEMBER 2024
Security was definitely on the mind of Michael Simpson, the chief executive officer at Clinisys. He urged Clinisys WinPath customers to upgrade to the
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