SBK Healthcare

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Expanding knowledge

5 hours Continuing Professional Development

The participants attended this essential conference to gain clear, practical insight that can be taken back and applied to immunology services. Key learning outcomes included:

Managing rising demand across high-pressure immunology testing areas such as allergy and immunofluorescence
Strengthening UKAS readiness by clarifying assessment criteria and developing strong QC and EQA approaches
Improving MDT collaboration between laboratory teams, clinicians, primary care and secondary care
Supporting sustainable service delivery under workforce, resource and workload pressure
Enhancing clinical utility in myositis testing and minimal residual disease (MRD) monitoring

Network and benchmark

Bringing the immunology community together

Over the last five years, this dedicated immunology networking event has brought together laboratory managers, clinical scientists, biomedical scientists, quality leads and service teams. Attending this event is an opportunity to share practical learning and real-world service developments. Those in attendance this year were able to:

Learn directly from expert speakers and case studies, gaining practical insights into managing demand across allergy, immunofluorescence and specialist immunology testing while maintaining clinical utility, quality and turnaround times
Take part in interactive discussions with peers, exploring shared challenges around rising workload, workforce pressures, MDT collaboration and sustaining services under increasing demand
Benchmark your service against immunology laboratories across the UK, understanding how others are approaching UKAS readiness, QC, EQA and evidence for assessment
Build valuable professional connections, creating opportunities to continue sharing best practice, discuss common challenges and learn from colleagues developing future testing pathways

“An incredibly useful conference. All the presentations including discussions were engaging and provided insightful knowledge that I will be using in my role and in my department going forward”

Staying Ahead in the Evolution of Immunology Service Delivery 2025, Birmingham

With special thanks to our sponsor

SBK Healthcare would like to thank Siemens Healthineers for sponsoring this educational forum.

Thank you to the exhibitors

Invitation to sponsor or exhibit

These national forums are designed to enable obesity management providers to support healthcare professionals. If you would like to sponsor or exhibit at a forum like this, please contact:

Vanessa Jarman

Commercial Partnerships

vanessa.jarman@sbk-healthcare.co.uk

8:30	Registration and networking opportunity Sponsoring today are Siemens Healthineers and exhibiting are Binding Site, BIO-RAD, euroimmun and Werfen. Please do take this time to visit their stands to find out more about their products and services.
9:00	Introduction, instructions and chair’s opening remarks Dr Sameer Bahal, Consultant Clinical Immunologist and Allergist, University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust
Demand management
9:10	Demand management for allergy testing in Primary care Reviewing when testing adds clinical utility and where tests may be driven by historic practice or unclear clinical questions Improving allergy request quality through better clinical history, triage and clinician involvement What time, staffing and financial savings can better demand management produce? Dr Adrian Heaps, Consultant Clinical Scientist and Head of Department, Immunology & Immunogenetics, Bristol NHS Foundation Trust
9:40	Responding to rising immunofluorescence demand through automation Reviewing the impact of increasing fluorescence requests on laboratory capacity and service delivery How can automated workflows help maintain quality and turnaround times with limited staffing? Case study insight: Wolverhampton’s early experience of using workstation automation to manage rising immunofluorescence demand Dr Heather Clark, Consultant Clinical Scientist and Clinical Lead, Department of Immunology, Black Country Pathology Services
10:10	Questions and answers with your speakers
10:20	Interactive discussion: Managing demand across high-pressure immunology testing areas Which areas of testing are creating the most demand pressure in your service? How are you managing high-volume testing as requests continue to grow? Are there faster or more standardised testing pathways that could help services manage demand while maintaining clinical utility?
10:40	Feedback from interactive discussion: Managing demand across high-pressure immunology testing areas
10:50	Refreshments, networking break and meet the sponsors
10:50	Refreshments and networking break
UKAS readiness and quality control
11:10	Strengthening UKAS readiness by understanding assessment expectations Sharing current UKAS healthcare accreditation activity and areas of growth Highlighting common assessment findings and how laboratories have responded Supporting ISO 15189 compliance for immunology testing across specialist and wider blood sciences settings Suzanne Gascoigne-Barnett, Senior Assessment Manager, UKAS
11:40	Building confidence in QC, EQA and UKAS evidence for immunology testing Sharing practical QC approaches for qualitative and quantitative immunology testing Managing areas of testing where EQA is limited or unavailable Demonstrating confidence in QC strategy, risk assessment and evidence ahead of UKAS assessment Denise Hennessey, Quality Manager, Protein Reference Unit and Immunology Laboratory, South West London Pathology
12:10	Questions and answers with Suzanne Gascoigne-Barnett and Denise Hennessey
12:20	Refreshments and networking lunch
Service sustainability
1:20	Improving MDT collaboration between laboratories and clinicians Strengthening communication between laboratory teams, primary care and secondary care Reducing unnecessary or poorly targeted testing through clearer requesting pathways and clinical input Creating more clinical discussion around how immunology tests are selected, interpreted and used in patient care Dr Patrick Yong, Consultant Immunologist, Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust
1:50	Sustaining immunology services under workforce, resource and workload pressure Understanding the impact of staffing gaps, recruitment freezes and limited resources Managing rising workload while maintaining quality, turnaround times and clinical value Sharing practical approaches to workforce planning, prioritisation and making the case for additional resource Dean Tazzyman, Discipline Lead Specialist Blood Sciences, South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw Pathology
2:20	Questions and answers with Dr Patrick Yong and Dean Tazzyman
2:30	Interactive discussion: Improving collaboration and sustaining services under pressure Do you currently operate within an MDT or MDT-style model, and how are laboratory teams involved? How are clinical discussions and decisions fed back to the wider laboratory team? How are services managing workforce and workload pressures while maintaining quality and turnaround times?
3:00	Refreshments, networking break and meet the sponsors
Clinical utility in specialist immunology testing
3:20	Improving clinical utility in myositis testing Understanding when myositis testing adds clinical value as requests continue to increase Interpreting immunoblot results alongside immunofluorescence patterns to give clinicians a clearer picture Exploring whether myositis testing is targeting the right assays and antigens for what clinicians need to know Dr Harsha Gunawardena, Consultant Rheumatologist, North Bristol NHS Trust
Emerging technology and advanced monitoring
3:50	Royal Marsden case study: introducing mass spectrometry for multiple myeloma monitoring Understanding how mass spectrometry can support more sensitive blood-based monitoring for multiple myeloma patients Exploring how new analyser technology is being introduced into laboratory and clinical pathways Considering the impact on relapse detection, personalised care and reducing reliance on invasive follow-up testing Dr Robyn Shea, Consultant Clinical Scientist and Director of Blood Sciences, The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust
4:20	Questions and answers with Dr Harsha Gunawardena and Dr Robyn Shea
4:30	Chair’s closing remarks and close of conference

With thanks to the speakers

Dr Sameer Bahal

Consultant Clinical Immunologist and Allergist

University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust

Dr Patrick Yong

Consultant Immunologist

Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust

Dr Harsha Gunawardena

Consultant Rheumatologist

North Bristol NHS Trust

Dr Adrian Heaps

Consultant Clinical Scientist and Head of Department, Immunology & Immunogenetics

North Bristol NHS Trust

Denise Hennessey

Quality Manager, Protein Reference Unit and Immunology Laboratory

South West London Pathology

Dr Heather Clark

Consultant Clinical Scientist and Clinical Lead, Department of Immunology

Black Country Pathology Services

Dr Robyn Shea

Consultant Clinical Scientist and Director of Blood Sciences

The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust

Dean Tazzyman

Discipline Lead Specialist Blood Sciences

South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw Pathology

Suzanne Gascoigne-Barnett

Senior Assessment Manager

UKAS

Thank you for attending an event by SBK Healthcare. We are pleased to offer you access to all the documentation we are permitted to share from the event you attended. This is an exclusive benefit for all of the attendees and includes additional and updated documentation. If you are having difficulty accessing the files, please contact enquiries@sbk-healthcare.co.uk or telephone 01732 897788.