Blog Archives

AES Supports Help for Heroes

AES Group recently supported the valuable charity Help for Heroes, by funding an open golf tournament near Andover in October.

Thanks to good weather and a supportive Test Valley Golf Club, the event raised £5,500 for the charity which supports wounded service personnel.

The winners, team “Stable Four” from Andover were awarded a 4 Ball round at the prestigous Belfry golf course in the West Midlands.

Duration and scope of AES contract with the Royal Army of Oman increased

The Royal Army of Oman (RAO) has awarded AES a 3 year extension to their Machine Care Plus® contract for the provision of oil sampling and analysis services. In addition, the scope of the contract has also been increased and now includes support for Challenger 2 (CR2) Main Battle Tank (MBT), Challenger Armoured Repair and Recovery Vehicle (CRARRV), M60 MBT, G6 Self-Propelled Howitzer and Piranha Armoured Personnel Carrier .

PathoSys® Usergroup Meeting

The third PathoSys® user group meeting was held at the Lincoln County Hospital Pathology Department.

The meeting was kindly hosted by Path Links the Lincolnshire Pathology Network.

The meeting was well attended with representatives from:

  • Derbyshire
  • Lincolnshire
  • Merseyside
  • Manchester
  • Tyneside

Minutes of the meeting will be distributed in due course and the next user group meeting will be advertised when a venue and date is fixed.

About PathLinks

Path Links is a County Wide Pathology Service for Lincolnshire, delivering Pathology to two major Trusts, United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust (ULHT), and Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Trust (NLG).

Go Live: PathoSys® at Newcastle

On the 9th of February 2009 the pathology reporting PathoSys® went live at Newcastle.

The Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust which provides services across six sites, incorporating the Freeman Hospital, the Royal Victoria Infirmary and the Newcastle General Hospital.

The Trust provides services for a local population of around 500,000 (approx 3 million for tertiary services) and handles approximately 57,000 histology requests each year.
This is part of the NEwPath (North East Wide Pathology) Network Project which includes:

  • City Hospitals Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust
  • Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust
  • Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
  • Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
  • South Tyneside NHS Foundation Trust

PathoSys® installed at NEwPath

The pathology reporting system PathoSys® has been installed at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle as part of the implementation for the NEwPath Network.

It is expected that the Trusts from the network will begin going live with the system in early 2009 following connectivity testing between the sites and user training.

NEwPath Network

The NEwPath pathology network is made up of the following Trusts:

  • City Hospitals Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust
  • Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust
  • Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
  • Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
  • South Tyneside NHS Foundation Trust

Connected!

AES Medical and iSoft have successfully remotely tested the interface between the iLab (Apex) system and PathoSys® at the Newcastle Royal Victoria Infirmary.

This paves the way for further on site testing and implementation of the PathoSys® system in the new year.

PathoSys® is a registered trademark of Advanced Expert Systems Ltd.

1 in 7 Histopathologists licenced for PathoSys®

NHS workforce statistics* indicate that following a successful year 2008, the pathology reporting system PathoSys® is now licenced for 1 in 7 pathologists in NHS England.

AES Medical aims to build on this fantastic acheivement in 2009.

Cancer Peer Review picks up PathoSys®

PathoSys® users Cancer Peer Review reports are highlighting PathoSys® as good practice due to its ability to electronically collect MDS information for search and audit.

This capability allows sites with PathoSys® to meet Cancer Standard 3D-104 and 3D-105 as laid out in the NHS Manual for Cancer Services 20041.

Peer Review National Report2

Between 2004 and 2007,163 pathology services were checked against 7 measures (standards shown below). The results of this are summarised in the National Cancer Peer Review Programme National Report. The National Report and Individual Peer Review reports are available to view online at CQuINS – The Cancer Quality Improvement Network System website.

Cancer Standards for Pathology

The cancer standards for Pathology are as follows:

  • 3D-101 – CPA accreditation at least conditional level for all declared laboratories
  • 3D-102 – Agreed policy for referral of specimens for a pathology review outside the service
  • 3D-103 – Provision of MDT pathologist core members, for each MDT declared as part of the service
  • 3D-104 – Reports for national minimum dataset should include required items
  • 3D-105 – Electronic collection of national minimum dataset items
  • 3D-106 – PSA protocol for the test methodology
  • 3D-107 – National External QA Scheme for PSA testing

Enabling Compliance

PathoSys® enables compliance with Cancer Standard 3D-104 and our users are among the 15% (24 services) of Peer Reviewed sites that also meet pathology standard 3D-105 Electronic Collection of National Minimum Dataset items2.

References

1. NHS Manual for Cancer Services 2004. Department of Health.

2. National Report, National Cancer Peer Review Programme 2004-2007. National Cancer Action Team June 2008.

Go Live: Burton-on-Trent Cancer Pathology Reported in PathoSys®

Since the merger of the Burton Pathology Laboratory with Derby, the pathology reporting system PathoSys® now covers the entire Derby-Burton Cancer Network area.

Two additional Consultant Histopathologists have been added to the current user base at Derby City General Hospital with more on the way.

AES Medical is pleased to welcome the new users of the PathoSys® system.

Also, we are grateful for the confidence shown in PathoSys® by the Derby Hospitals NHS Trust and the Burton Hospitals NHS Trust with this expansion of usage in terms of users and throughput.

North West Cancer Intelligence Service Workshop

Following the implementation of the pathology reporting system PathoSys® at the St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. AES Medical has been invited to exhibit at the North West Cancer Intelligence Service (NWCIS) Workshop.

The event is being held at the Reebok Stadium in Bolton and is expected to attract over 100 delegates from the North West of England.