Making a difference in healthcare

One of the most satisfying things about my job is developing products which make a genuine difference to peoples' lives. That's the case with PathTrak, a new service we've launched to help the NHS improve patient safety, and save money at the same time.


Every day thousands of blood and tissue samples are transported from hospitals and GP surgeries to laboratories as part of the NHS pathology service. These are essential investigations to assess disease and potential treatment – it's estimated that up to 80 per cent of all healthcare decisions affecting treatment use a pathology investigation. And it takes up about four per cent of the total NHS budget.

Unfortunately, despite its scale and importance, pathology has been a major area of difficulty within the programme to modernise the NHS, with transportation highlighted as a key patient safety issue. In fact, the National Patient Safety Agency highlighted transportation of samples as the single largest source of patient safety incidents in laboratory medicine. It seems unbelievable in 2011 that samples are sometimes transported alongside dirty laundry and not in dedicated vehicles.

In his comprehensive review of pathology services in England in 2006, Lord Carter of Coles called for better use of digital technology, including a recommendation for electronic end-to-end management of specimen samples to improve safety and security for patients.

PathTrak provides the same level of efficiency and security that we now take for granted in other 'high value' logistics situations. It uses a sophisticated GPS 'track and trace' system to reduce lost samples, streamline medical courier routes and deliver a more efficient flow of samples to the laboratory. Where we've piloted PathTrak with NHS customers, they've seen savings of up to 20 per cent in their pathology transport costs.

Andrew Turner, our Healthcare Director, will be presenting this new innovative service at Institute of Biomedical Science Congress on Tuesday 27th, in Hall 6 and discussing all of the issues involved in patient specimen transportation.

I know if it was my family depending on fast, efficient delivery of important medical tests, I would want the same level of care applied to the transport, as that delivered by the laboratory itself. I'm proud that we can make a contribution towards helping to modernise this important service and provide reassurance to both healthcare professionals and patients.