HistopathMay and June were busy months for The Department of Histopathology at The Royal Liverpool University Hospital. The event held in May - ‘A Day in The Life of our Histopathology Department’ was organised by Dr Yasmeen Mir and all the trainees in the department. This event was hosted for undergraduate medical students to expose them and to give them a chance to take an in depth look at the central role of pathology in patient care. The day included talks on bowel and cervical cancer screening programmes by a consultant gastroenterologist and nurses. In addition they had an opportunity to follow a specimen through the histopathology department and a tour of the mortuary with small group tutorials on the museum specimens. The students also had a chance to look at the slides during the multiheader session. The event concluded with a quiz and a prize was given out to the winner. The feedback received was ‘Inspiring, a very useful and informative day’. In June we hosted an exhibition of 20 high resolution histological images, collected by Dr Parashar (ST2) with the hope of dispelling the public’s perception that histology is a macabre and unsavoury specialty. All visitors to the hospital were able to view the images in the main foyer and left feedback in our guest book - “Fascinating beautiful imagesInspiring on so many levels.”

Lab ToursLaboratory Tour was given to students on 12th and 15TH June, 2012. The students were introduced to glucometers and were taken around the biochemistry lab.

Healthy HeartsThe board display in lipid outpatient clinic area for a month. It provided information to patients attending lipid clinic with lifestyle advice on diet, weight reduction, blood pressure control and smoking.

Nutrition Awareness DayA symposium was organised in the Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospital NHS Trust on 17th September, 2012, to celebrate “National Pathology Year”. It was an excellent opportunity for health professionals and students to come under one roof and explore the role of the multidisciplinary hospital nutrition support team. Peter Turner, senior dietician, highlighted the significance of nutritional screening methods in identifying patients at risk of malnutrition. Alison Young, consultant nutrition nurse presented the different types of nutritional support and discussed the ethical, moral and consent issues related to nutrition support. John White, senior pharmacist, defined the role of pharmacy in choosing and formulating enteral and parenteral nutrition regimens. Dr Vinita Mishra, consultant chemical pathologist, elucidated the role of biochemistry and fluid management in patients on nutritional support. Dr David McClements, gastroenterologist explained the pathogenesis and management of crohn’s disease. This was well illustrated through case presentation by the team followed by active participation by patient himself. In the later half of day, some interesting workshops were organised on enteral tubes, parenteral lines and nutritional screening techniques in the hospitalised patients. The symposium concluded with an exciting quiz involving the participants. Event received a very positive feedback from participants: “Very enlightening day, gained new outline on nutritional issues in hospitalised patients.” Through this symposium we raised £295 which was donated to PINNT, a charitable organisation for all patients on artificial nutrition.

Pathology WorkshopThe departments of Biochemistry and Virology from the Royal Liverpool University Hospital took part in a workshop at Knowsley College on 9 March 2012. The day was organised by MerseySTEM as part of National Healthcare Science week to promote healthcare science as a career choice and was attended by year nine students from across Liverpool. It was an opportunity for the departments to take the laboratories to the students and engage them in activities such as glucose monitoring and identification of various bugs using microscopes. Everyone involved had a great day, including the staff that took part and hopefully encouraged students to consider a career in healthcare science.

Report from Walton CentreDr Nitika Rathi, SpR Neuropathology with a team of five colleagues from Neuropathology and Neurobiochemistry organised 6 events during first three months of 2012. The sessions were attended by medical, non-medical staff members from Walton centre. These sessions aimed at delivering a basic understanding of tissue handling and special techniques including electron microscopy and neurobiochemistry investigations including xanthochromia and gel electrophoresis. Feedback from attendees - “The events gave clear insight into processing of the samples they send”, “Found it fascinating to see ‘behind the scenes’ work that goes into making a diagnosis” and “to continue organising similar events in future.”

Grand Round - Pathology: A science behind the CureA Grand Round event was organised by the members of the Pathology Department to celebrate 50 years of The Royal College of Pathologists. Hospital staff were targeted to raise their awareness and knowledge of pathology specialties in general and give them a flavour of what goes on behind the scenes under the title “Pathology: The science behind the cure”. An initial introduction regarding history of The Royal College of Pathologists, career options and significance of national pathology year was followed by a talk on 50 years of hospital pathology by senior pathologists. The talks highlighted the progress from manual intensive techniques of the past to today’s sophisticated automated laboratories in all specialties particularly in Blood Sciences. The finale was a virtual video tour of the laboratories demonstrating examples of procedures for sample / tissue analysis. In addition to increasing awareness of our audience about the subject, this event also demonstrated the teamwork amongst all grades of pathology staff.

National Pathology Year 201250 years of Royal College of Pathology