Sysmed Solutions has announced that its WinPath pathology laboratory information management system (LIMS) has been selected by at Brighton and Sussex University Hospital NHS Trust following a fast-track procurement process. WinPath will replace two separate LIMS legacy systems at the trust. The value and duration of the contract were not disclosed. Brighton and Sussex University NHS Trust was created in 2002 through the merger of Brighton Health Care and the acute services of Mid Sussex NHS Trusts to form BSUH. Following the merger the trust decided that it needed a single modern pathology LIMS was essential to enable fully integrated and standardised working practices across the two campuses. “The functionality of WinPath was thoroughly reviewed against other market players and it was decided by all personnel, both within pathology and IM&T departments, that it met and/or exceeded all our technical specifications in line with our modernisation strategy,” said Graham Crawford, acting deputy director of IM&T at the Trust. Crawford added: “We also knew that this LIMS could be readily supported both internally by our IM&T Department and externally by Sysmed, and ensured that it would be compatible with the technical standards which will be required when ICRS is implemented.” Sysmed, which claims over a 100 UK sites, says that key a feature of WinPath is its extensive rules-based testing module for auto-validation of haematology and biochemistry results. At Brighton and Sussex this functionality will aid modernisation of the Trust’s pathology laboratories by minimising the number of manual intervention required, and enabling a higher throughput of tests on automated instrumentation. Another key feature of the trust’s LIMS procurement was that the two incumbent LIMS had to be rapidly replaced to ensure efficient and standardised working practices within the two pathology departments of the merged Trust. Alan Carter of Hill, Dunn Associates, who facilitated the trust’s LIMs procurement said: “…the Trust was able to cut to the chase and only focus on systems already known and used within the NHS and, therefore, potentially suitable for its needs. This meant that the Trust was able to gain the system it required with the minimum amount of time and expense involved.”
