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6 articles
Preanalytical failure is often treated as a specimen problem, yet many errors are shaped earlier by request forms and electronic ordering screens. This article argues that UK pathology ordering interfaces need device-style scrutiny, with a practical audit and redesign checklist for laboratories, primary care and IT teams.
Annual antimicrobial susceptibility updates can reclassify organisms, alter cascade reporting and change clinician behaviour long after the validation paperwork has been filed. This deep dive examines how UK laboratories can manage EUCAST and CLSI revisions across the LIS, disc diffusion, automated systems and stewardship teams without creating invisible reporting inconsistencies.
Vendor reference intervals are convenient defaults, not universal truths. As UK laboratories plan analyzer replacements, local verification and targeted de novo studies can prevent a new platform from redefining disease by configuration.
Point-of-care testing has moved from the margins of UK diagnostics to something closer to a front door. But a rapid test is not a small laboratory, and scaling community testing depends far less on the device than on the arrangements wrapped around it. A practical checklist for commissioners, pharmacy leads and laboratory teams.
Between the needle and the result screen sits a chain of handoffs that few clinicians ever see. This explainer follows a single blood tube through a UK pathology network and examines where preanalytical error creeps in — and which interventions actually close the gap.
Multiplex respiratory panels are moving from specialist virology centres into routine NHS workflows. The science is elegant; the operational questions are harder, from validation and turnaround to antimicrobial stewardship.