#United Kingdom #Sectra #NHS #Linköping #Source BioScience

Source BioScience Partners with Sectra

In a significant move to enhance pathology services across the UK, Source BioScience, a prominent digital pathology provider, has joined forces with Sectra, a leading international company in medical imaging IT and cybersecurity. This partnership aims to enable seamless collaboration among NHS organizations, particularly in the realm of pathology.

Sectra has recently entered into an agreement with Source BioScience UK Ltd, making them the first customer to utilize Sectra's innovative service designed for advanced sharing and collaborative workflows in pathology. This initiative marks a substantial stride toward establishing national telepathology networks within the UK, paving the way for an improved framework that enhances access to specialized pathologists.

The Sectra Image Exchange Portal

The cornerstone of this collaboration is the Sectra Image Exchange Portal (Sectra IEP), a cloud-based and vendor-neutral platform tailored for the exchange and collaboration on medical images. Currently adopted by over 500 institutions, predominantly in radiology, the service has recently undergone significant modernization, offering advanced workflow functionalities that extend its applications beyond radiology to other medical specialties.

Nick Bills, Healthcare Director at Source BioScience, emphasized the importance of this integration, noting that it will facilitate a streamlined digital pathway for the NHS to connect with external specialists. This is expected to significantly reduce turnaround times for diagnoses, alleviate consultant shortages, and address the persistent issue of reporting backlogs—challenges that have become increasingly pressing as the demand for pathology services continues to rise in the face of limited resources.

Addressing Challenges in Pathology Services

As the volume of cases managed by NHS pathology services increases, the strain on reporting consultants becomes more pronounced. The growing subspecialization in the field often necessitates that the most qualified pathologist for a particular case is located in a different organization. Traditionally, sending work to external capacity providers has relied on customized arrangements between individual laboratories, including the cumbersome transportation of physical glass slides, which adds to delays and administrative burdens.

The implementation of Sectra's service allows pathology cases to be created directly from a laboratory's worklist, seamlessly delegated to the receiving organization, and returned to the referring laboratory’s records upon completion. This not only expedites the reporting process but also minimizes the manual handling of cases, significantly enhancing efficiency.

Jane Rendall, Managing Director for Sectra UK and Ireland, elaborated on the potential impacts of the modernized platform, stating, "IEP is the backbone of image sharing across the NHS. Our updated platform introduces advanced workflows and extends that trusted national network into pathology. By connecting trusts with external specialists like Source BioScience, we ensure that cases and completed reports can flow smoothly across organizational boundaries. This initiative is a progressive step towards creating an NHS where expertise is always within reach."

Future Prospects and Expectations

The agreement, signed during the second quarter of Sectra's fiscal year 2026/2027, anticipates processing up to 60,000 cases in its first year, with projections to scale in subsequent years. This partnership is expected to fundamentally transform the landscape of pathology services in the UK and improve the overall patient experience through enhanced diagnosis speed and accuracy.

Source BioScience specializes in laboratory services focused on histopathology and genomics, supporting over 85 NHS trusts along with private healthcare clinics. With laboratories located in key areas such as Nottingham, Chichester, and Cambridge, Source BioScience is well-positioned to make significant contributions to the NHS's pathology services.

This partnership heralds a new era of digital pathology within the NHS, promising more efficient and effective healthcare solutions for patients across the UK.