CONGRESS: 22–25 SEPTEMBER 2025


Immunocytochemistry and In-Situ Hybridisation (ICC&ISH) and the UK NEQAS Cellular Pathology Technique (CPT) Schemes, reflecting the very strong emphasis on education and learning at the heart of these and all UK NEQAS Schemes


The UK NEQAS CPT Scheme Director, Chantell Hodgson, kicks off the week’s activities on Monday 22nd as Chair of the Tissue and Tumours Workshop, which will include Paul Scorer, the Scheme’s educational lead, talking on distinguishing tumour tissue from normal tissue. The CPT story is picked up later in the week on Wednesday with presentations on staining excellence, practical advice on how to improve microtomy, cryotomy and embedding technique from Lorren Mitchell, the CPT Scheme Manager, and Paul Scorer (again) and, perhaps most important of all, how to maintain and develop a cellular pathology laboratory in the midst of a crisis, from Scott Gable who is Scheme Coordinator at UK NEQAS CPT. Rob Hughes, Deputy Scheme Director, will also share his insight into writing cellular pathology business cases. UK NEQAS services are continuously developing, and this is exemplified by CPT on Thursday, on the use of whole- slide images in a pilot programme on device independent colour correction, from James Howe, an expert peer assessor to UK NEQAS CPT. UK NEQAS ICC&ISH presents four talks – Fitim Berisha, a staff scientist at the Scheme will discuss the role of immunohistochemistry markers in distinguishing benign from malignant sarcoma. Andrew Dodson, the Scheme Director, follows Fitim on Tuesday, talking on targeted therapies for treating gastric adenocarcinoma. On Wednesday, Dawn Wilkinson, the ICC&ISH Deputy Manager will highlight the importance of the effects of pre-analytic variables that affect quality across the tissue journey and downstream testing, and Suzanne Parry, the Scheme Manager, will provide an overview of troubleshooting immunohistochemistry in the laboratory, including the importance of good quality stains and with examples of sub-optimal versus optimal immunohistochemical preparations.


Leaders Summit The strength of UK NEQAS lies in its people. Team members are recognised experts in their respective disciplines, bringing together extensive laboratory experience, deep subject knowledge, and a strong commitment to education. As highly skilled healthcare scientists, UK NEQAS staff play a central role in supporting laboratories, clinicians, and ultimately the public. Their expertise


EQA offers laboratories a unique learning space – a chance to identify errors and refine practice without risk to patient safety


ensures that UK NEQAS not only delivers robust EQA but also provides the interpretative guidance and professional insight that help drive improvements in diagnostic testing and patient care. The Association of Laboratory Medicine Laboratory Leaders Summit session will feature three contributions focusing on the importance of EQA in patient safety. The first is from Finlay MacKenzie, Director of Birmingham Quality and UK NEQAS Chemistry, on EQA as the missing link in the governance process, followed by Rachel Marrington (Deputy Director of Birmingham Quality and UK NEQAS Chemistry) and Naomi Elkin from UK NEQAS Cardiac Markers, who have been invited to speak on value added EQA. Rachel Marrington will have a busy week at Congress as she is also speaking on the Clinical Chemistry session on acute kidney injury and alerting, including the Get it Right First Time and Acute Kidney Injury survey and national recommendations. Rachel is the UK NEQAS Scheme Organiser for several EQA Schemes including the UK NEQAS for Serum Indices, UK NEQAS for Vitamin D and UK NEQAS for Antibiotics to name a few. Her main areas of interest lie with Pre- and Post-Analytical Quality, where she is on the EFLM HIL Task & Finish Group and the EFLM Working Group Post Analytical. Another contribution to the Association of Laboratory Medicine session is from Gwen Wark on the role of EQA in patient safety. Gwen is the organiser of UK NEQAS Schemes for Peptide Hormones and Trace Elements. Like several other UK NEQAS organisers, Gwen has a substantive post as a consultant clinical chemist and therefore is expert in both diagnostic testing and interpretation as well as EQA provision.


This is reflected in the fact that Gwen will also speak on Thursday on Ozempic and others (GLP-1 agonists).


Haematology and Transfusion Science UK NEQAS Schemes offer a breadth and depth of knowledge of state of the art in laboratory performance. Many of our senior staff are involved in the development of guidelines by bodies such as the British Society for Haematology (BSH), amongst others. Richard Haggas, Scientific Director of UK NEQAS Blood Transfusion Laboratory Practice, is a member of the Transfusion Task Force of the BSH and has been on the writing groups for a number of BSH guidelines. Richard is talking on Wednesday at 11am about the pre- transfusion compatibility guidelines. Richard is currently on the organising committee for the BGS Transfusion conferences and is a trustee of the BGS Transfusion charity, in addition to his role in UK NEQAS. Ian Jennings, the Manager and Deputy Directory for UK NEQAS Coagulation, is well known for his contribution to the Institute as Chief Examiner for Haematology and Chair of the IBMS Haematology Advisory Panel. Ian is not speaking on EQA but will explain how biomedical scientists can advance their careers by taking IBMS examinations, including the new Diplomas of Expert Practice, in his ‘Exams in Haematology’ session.


Barbara De la Salle, the UK NEQAS


President and previous Director of UK NEQAS Haematology, has been invited to speak on the development of EQA for reticulocyte haemoglobin concentration. This is a ‘new’ parameter available in different guises on automated haematology analysers, which contributes to the challenge of diagnosing and monitoring iron status. UK NEQAS Haematology is one of a very few EQA providers offering this EQA, which was developed with the support and advice of the Scheme’s advisors. Experts from the UK NEQAS Haematology’s Morphology Scientific Advisory Group feature on the Congress programme in non-EQA haematology sessions, presenting the morphology quiz (Dr Michelle Brereton) and two presentations on the


Education has always been central to the mission of UK NEQAS, and this commitment is reflected in the breadth of contributions from its colleagues across multiple disciplines


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