Healthcare technology company plans roll out of innovative product

THE National Pathology Exchange (NPEx) developed by University of Leeds based e-health systems developer, X-Lab, has been recognised by the NHS as a key digital innovation.

NPEx is cited in NHS England’s Digital First Report, published last week, as a key digital innovation revolutionising the delivery of pathology services across the country and now aims to roll out the system in 50% of the UK’s NHS pathology labs by the end of this year.

NHS England’s report, National Pathology Programme Digital First: Clinical Transformation through Pathology Innovation, highlighted the use of digital platforms and innovative technology in the delivery of pathology services across the country.

NPEx was launched as a national NHS service in November 2010. It is the first of its kind in the UK – used in NHS pathology laboratories connecting them to a national network enabling them to send and receive test requests and results electronically.

Pathology is involved in 70% of all diagnoses made in the NHS. NPEx is available nationally to all NHS pathology laboratories, through The Health Informatics Service, an NHS organisation which provides IT systems and services to 23,000 users.

Around 30 NHS laboratories are now using NPEx to digitise their lab-to-lab communications. NPEx connects NHS pathology laboratories across the UK to a national hub in a secure NHS data centre so that test referrals and results can be sent between laboratories electronically in a few seconds.

Christopher Johnson, national pathology lead at NHS England, said: “The NPEx system is really fundamental in allowing us to bring pathology from a very fragmented service to a more standardised service – based on standards devised by NHS England – and that has got to be the right way to go from a safety and cost-efficiency point of view. I think it is a fantastic system and I would like it to see it become universal. X-Lab is a unique partnership between industry, the University of Leeds and the Health Informatics Service.”