NEWS
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LABORATORY INFORMATICS
CliniSys to provide a single laboratory information system for Northern Ireland
CliniSys has won a major contract to deploy a single laboratory information system across Northern Ireland as part of a modernisation programme to create a world-class pathology service for the country. CliniSys will replace the seven IT systems used by Northern Ireland’s hospital trusts’ pathology disciplines and the Northern Ireland Blood Transfusion Service with the latest version of WinPath Enterprise. In addition, CliniSys will also replace the legacy system used by the country’s genetics service with GLIMS Genomics, which has been designed to meet the needs of genomics laboratories and successfully deployed across mainland Europe. Northern Ireland’s Health Minister Robin
Swann said: ‘Pathology is a service that operates largely behind the scenes but which is critical to our health service and contributes to the vast majority of patient diagnoses from GPs and hospitals. In labs across the region, more than 40 million tests a year are being carried out by our scientists and laboratory staff, to support the healthcare needs of our population. ‘The past 18 months have been
particularly challenging, with the pandemic placing unprecedented demands on our testing service and reinforcing the need for investment and transformation of our health and social care system, to meet the needs of our citizens in coming years,’ Swann continued. ‘I believe that a world-class digital healthcare service is at the heart of our future needs, and the launch of LIMS is a shining example of transformation being delivered.’ Karin Jackson, who leads the Core LIMS project in the The Northern Ireland Pathology Information Management Systems (NIPIMS) programme, said: ‘Today is excellent news for our health service, and pathology services in particular. It
26 Scientific Computing World Autumn 2021
sees us beginning to implement a regional solution that will take us from seven separate systems to a single, Northern Ireland healthcare-specific, digital solution. This will enable us to better manage increasing demand, standardise reporting and ensure a better service for patients.’ Jennifer Welsh, senior responsible
owner of NIPIMS and chair of the Northern Ireland Pathology Network, said: ‘The decision to award a single LIMS contract is a big moment in the development of pathology services in Northern Ireland. ‘This Regional LIMS solution will
generate accurate, real-time information to enable laboratories to benchmark their performance and deliver new insights into the conditions for which tests are being run. The recent Covid-19 pandemic has shown how important it is to pick up and
track infections in the community.’ Northern Ireland’s Health and Social
Care Board has been working with PathNetNI on a programme to modernise pathology services for the past five years. A consultation in 2016 noted that
laboratory tests are already involved in 70- 80 per cent of diagnoses and that demand will grow as health and social care services respond to the needs of an ageing population, advances in cancer medicine, and the spread of genetic testing and precision medicine. However, it concluded that pathology
services in Northern Ireland would face significant challenges in meeting these demands without investment and reform. The consultation concluded with
proposals that are now being implemented to create a single, integrated management
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