Cerner wins big contract with Viapath

Viapath has awarded a contract to Cerner for its PathNet pathology system as part of a transformation project.

The pathology service, formerly known as GSTS Pathology, is a joint venture between Serco, King’s College Hospital and Guy’s and St Thomas’s Hospital, launched its new Viapath brand earlier this month.

Richard Jones, the chief executive of Viapath, told EHI that the company, which is mostly NHS-owned, wants to bring pathology into the 21^st century focussing on innovation, collaboration and expertise.

“We want to bring pathology up to scratch in the NHS and do it cost effectively. The laboratory information management system is an enabler to do so,” he said.

"The new system will allow us to continually improve the quality of our pathology services whilst delivering them efficiently and at scale."

Cerner was awarded the seven year contract as part of Viapath’s wider £11m transformation programme, based on an enterprise-wide LIMS to support their strategic plan for growth.

The system will be used for the company’s flagship services with Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and will be implemented across blood sciences, cellular pathology, blood transfusion and microbiology. It will provide streamlined tracking of specimen samples, electronic test results, and specimen-patient match through verification of patient demographics and will be hosted by Cerner.

“We are planning to go live with the first phase of the deployment early next year. We are firstly rolling the system out at Guys and St Thomas’, but also creating a build on with integration for future partners,” said Jones.

He added that getting a new pathology system in place is important for Viapath’s plans to grow and become a leading provider of pathology services in the NHS.

Jones said that the company is also interested in doing some innovative work in the genome sequencing space, and that they are in talks with NHS England on the possibility of this.

“Genome sequencing technology gives all sort of diagnostic possibilities. We haven’t even scratched the surface, he said.

“We want to be a full service provider across the NHS in the end.”