The National Pathology Imaging Co-operative (NPIC) is expanding the use of international medical imaging IT and cybersecurity company Sectra’s pathology solution. This opens opportunities for NHS trusts throughout the UK to digitize pathology and improve patient diagnoses.

March 7, 2022 — The National Pathology Imaging Co-operative (NPIC) is expanding the use of international medical imaging IT and cybersecurity company Sectra’s pathology solution. This opens opportunities for NHS trusts throughout the UK to digitize pathology and improve patient diagnoses.

The expansion now taking place will help laboratories in different parts of the UK digitize their pathology services. Big wins are expected for patients and busy healthcare professionals. It is a result of a 5-year contract signed in October 2021 and is part of a multi-million pound NHS initiative that already spans six trusts.

Initially, it will involve providing support to more hospitals in the North of England, but the agreement will also allow NPIC to scale its approach and the Sectra technology to other hospitals across the country, as many more consider how to begin digital pathology initiatives and take advantage of emerging government funding. In addition, it will allow NPIC to create two new specialist digital pathology networks in paediatrics and sarcoma tissue cancers. 

NPIC is led by Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and NHS laboratories in the surrounding region that are now becoming amongst the most technologically advanced and interconnected anywhere in the world. Organizations involved are ending their reliance on microscopes by sharing digital images of patients’ tissue. In turn, the region will be able to send images to specialists more easily and embrace artificial intelligence to enhance how illnesses are diagnosed and managed.   

Professor Darren Treanor, NPIC’s director, and a practising pathologist at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “Digital pathology is now a national priority. Many NHS hospitals want to take advantage of this powerful technology to deliver a better service for patients. With NPIC, we hope to provide a proven model, underpinned with advanced technology from Sectra, that will help many more hospitals quickly realize their ambitions and benefit from the groundwork we have already done.” 

Basharat Hussain, deployment director at NPIC, added: “Our work may have begun with a regional focus, but we are moving to address some significant clinical priorities nationally in areas like paediatrics and sarcoma cancer, where pathology specialists are especially scarce. We have now identified a significantly bigger application for our programme. We have shown how digital pathology can work and we can help the rest of the NHS replicate and scale using our learnings, in order to get pathology digitized to support better patient care.” 

Jane Rendall, managing director for Sectra UK and Ireland, said: “We have been working with hospitals and regions throughout the UK for years to embrace digital approaches to diagnostics in a way that improves the working lives of staff, and that enables sustainable new ways to deliver services and cope with rising demand. NHS organizations are now embarking on this journey at pace, and have an opportunity to learn from pioneers, such as those in the North of England, who have been committed to making this work, and who are now ready to scale their success.”

The pathology solution is part of Sectra’s enterprise imaging solution that provides a unified strategy for all imaging needs while lowering operational costs. The scalable and modular solution, with a VNA at its core, allows healthcare providers to grow from ology to ology and from enterprise to enterprise. Visit Sectra’s website to read more about Sectra and why it’s top-ranked in 'Best in KLAS'.

For more information: www.sectra.com

More HIMSS 2022 content


Related Content

News | Artificial Intelligence

December 6, 2023 — The American Medical Association (AMA) released new principles for augmented intelligence (AI) ...

Time December 06, 2023
arrow
News | Enterprise Imaging

December 6, 2023 — NVIDIA launched a cloud service for medical imaging AI to further streamline and accelerate the ...

Time December 06, 2023
arrow
News | Digital Pathology

December 6, 2023 — One of the largest independent pathology service providers in the United States, CellNetix Pathology ...

Time December 06, 2023
arrow
News | Artificial Intelligence

December 5, 2023 — Radiology is under severe economic pressure as reimbursement rates fall for many common scans. At the ...

Time December 05, 2023
arrow
News | RSNA

December 1, 2023 — Royal Philips, a global leader in health technology, put patients and healthcare providers center ...

Time December 01, 2023
arrow
News | RSNA

December 1, 2023 —Nuance Communications, Inc., a Microsoft Company, during the 2023 Radiological Society of North ...

Time December 01, 2023
arrow
Feature | RSNA | Christine Book

November 28, 2023 — By early Monday morning, on the second day of RSNA 2023, there were significant news announcements ...

Time November 28, 2023
arrow
News | Artificial Intelligence

November 27, 2023 — ConcertAI's TeraRecon, the advanced visualization and clinical AI leader, recently unveiled first-in ...

Time November 27, 2023
arrow
News | Enterprise Imaging

November 27, 2023 — Medweb, a leading innovator in medical imaging technology, today announced MedwebX, a comprehensive ...

Time November 27, 2023
arrow
News | Digital Pathology

November 27, 2023 — At the Radiological Society of North America's (RSNA) 109th Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting ...

Time November 27, 2023
arrow
Subscribe Now