Salisbury trust first to implement CSC’s next-generation pathology suite

Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust will be the first to implement the full suite of CSC’s next-generation laboratory products to help meet the evolving demands and requirements of a modern pathology service.

Continuing a 20-year partnership, the trust has agreed a five-year extension of its current contract for CSC's laboratory information system and to adopting new modules as they become available. The implementation of the new cellular pathology solution is to be followed by an early adopter programme, which will see CSC and Salisbury partner to develop a new generation of blood transfusion, blood sciences, and microbiology solutions.

Dr Brian Moody, laboratory manager at Salisbury, said: “The core functionality and workflow of our current CSC pathology system is very powerful, but opting for CSC’s next-generation solution allowed us to use our existing products, while modernising the on-screen presentation, making the systems easier-to-use, more accessible.”

CSC’s new laboratory suite offers clinicians a simple, user-friendly interface that is easy to install as either a thin client or web-based solution sitting alongside and augmenting current laboratory systems.

Moody said: “We were attracted by the module-by-module approach as we didn’t have the resource to do a full ‘rip and replace’. The fact the solution was developed from a laboratory perspective meant we gained a lot of trust and respect for the CSC team by working with them, and felt involved at every stage of the process. Now we’ve seen the kind of enhancements available on the first module we feel that there is nothing in the market that can rival the solution.”

In addition the first module offers sophisticated new word processing functionality, allowing full and formatted reporting across all disciplines, supporting pathologist’s requirements to handle more data, more efficiently. The system also integrates with digital imaging solutions to display and capture detailed clinical images.

Caroline Mathews, blood transfusion laboratory manager at the trust, said: “Being part of the pathology development group at the trust allowed me to see the potential evolution of the product suite, particularly for the histopathy module and the benefits that it could bring to the organisation.

“For example, the ability to customise our screens to show multiple sets of data means we can access both patient details and haematology results, making sure we are working within the correct guidelines and using blood appropriately. Also, the new modern interface will help when training our younger pathologists who expect a system in line with today’s technological advances.”

Nick Harte, CSC’s solutions director, added: “We are following a truly agile development approach across all pathology disciplines, allowing us to meet Salisbury’s and the wider market’s current and future needs in a timely and responsive manner. Our commitment to supporting an incremental replacement approach means our customers can access revolutionary new functionality in an evolutionary manner; there is no need for the service to suffer the disruption, cost and stress of a traditional system replacement.”