CliniSys software to underpin NHS England’s HPV screening service

CliniSys has secured contracts to provide its requesting and reporting software to seven out of eight new laboratory hubs selected to deliver NHS England’s primary HPV screening service.

The lab tech provider will deploy CliniSys Integrated Clinical Environment (ICE) to support GP practices and laboratory services across seven areas of the country, allowing family doctors and nurses to order tests and receive results.

Matthew Fouracre, marketing manager of CliniSys, said: “England’s cervical screening programme is an important public health intervention that saves thousands of lives every year.

“The new primary HPV screening service should make it even more effective, and CliniSys is proud to have been given such a significant role in its roll-out.

“CliniSys ICE is used by practices across the country to order a wide range of tests for patients, and it will be our job to make sure that they can be connected into this new service, so they can support the women who come forward for cervical screening.”

HPV screening is a relatively new way of examining cervical screening samples.

A trial at six laboratories in England in 2013 indicated that primary HPV screening could reduce the incidence of cervical cancer, and the government committed to rolling out primary HPV screening across the NHS Cervical Screening Programme by the end of 2019.

NHS England subsequently invited NHS trusts and pathology networks to become hubs for the new service, covering London, the North East and North West, East and West Midlands, and South Central, South East and South West.

The commissioning board announced the winning bidders in June. Seven of the eight laboratory services chosen had selected CliniSys to provide ICE as the requesting and results software that would connect them to GPs.

Fouracre added: “We are now looking forward to engaging with NHS England’s regional public health commissioning teams, regional commissioners and the laboratories themselves on their mobilisation plans for this important new service.”

Four out of the eight successful NHS trusts or pathology networks that will be delivering the new service are also CliniSys WinPath laboratory information management system customers, CliniSys said.

South West London Pathology recently contracted CliniSys to deliver a network-wide laboratory information management system (LIMS) based on its WinPath software.