Now there is just under a month to go to the Pathology Horizons 2015 conference and my first visit to Australia! The programme has come together really well an we have some excellent speakers and insightful presentations.

One such presenter is Dr Damian Fogarty of the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust. His talk is entitled “Pathology in the era of connected health: linking patients outcomes and data”.

With a passionate interest in the use of routine data for health care improvement and research, Damian has published over 100 papers and 2 book chapters in these areas. He fervently believes that Northern Ireland can make better use of IT systems to help drive high quality care for patients in an efficient and equitable way and also innovate marketable systems for other public sector benefits.

Damian is s a Consultant Kidney Physician in the Regional Nephrology and Transplant Unit, Belfast Health and Social Care Trust. He was formerly a Senior Lecturer and principal investigator with Queen’s University Belfast and from 2010-14 was Chairman of the UK Renal Registry. He trained in Belfast and Boston.

His clinical and research interests have focused on diabetic kidney disease, chronic kidney disease epidemiology including meta-analyses and health services research.

Join us at Pathology Horizons to hear Damian’s view on innovative usage of data analytics  to drive high quality health care for patients.

Margaret

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In recent years automated image analysis is an area that has been making significant progress and is gaining momentum in pathology. Major improvements have happened in computing speed, performance and in the algorithms for image analysis. So what are the implications for diagnostics? When, if ever, will automated image analysis become more reliable than the trained eye of a pathologist?

A growing number of studies have been seeking to evaluate the effectiveness of automated image analysis. At Pathology Horizons we will be joining the debate and taking a look ahead to the future of automated imaging. We are delighted to have Professor Peter Hamilton speaking on future possibilities in automated image analysis. He will discuss Next Generation Imaging in Pathology and computer vision (using computers to perceive, process, and understand visual data) and if it is the stuff of dreams or reality?

Peter is Head of the Pathology Bioimaging and Informatics Laboratory within the Centre for Cancer Research and Cell Biology at Queen’s University Belfast.  He is also founder of and VP for Research and Development with PathXL Ltd, a global company specializing in digital pathology software for tumor analysis and biomarker discovery. Recently PathXL was selected as a major partner for a national molecular oncology programme.

Come along to Pathology Horizons 2015 to hear whether next generation tissue imaging technology can radically change how pathology is practiced.

The Cirdan team is delighted to announce that distinguished presenter Professor Manuel Salto-Tellez will be joining us at the Pathology Horizons 2015 conference and will present his views on developments in personalised medicine and the future of tissue pathology. It is a highly relevant subject for the conference theme of “what lies ahead in pathology”.

According to Professor Salto-Tellez, Personalised / Precision Medicine has revolutionized cancer treatment and is also deeply transforming the way that tissue pathology is practiced. Specifically, his talk will review the status of molecular diagnostic tests applicable to tissues and cells. It will also cover the main technical and conceptual areas that, he believes, will be shaping the future of tissue pathology and its integration with the molecular era.

The areas to be included are

• Digital pathology in the pipeline of therapeutic pathology
• Tissue-based NGS and its integration in routine diagnostics
• The promise of liquid biopsy diagnostics and its necessary “partnership” with tissue molecular testing
• Pathology IT, databases and bioinformatics
• The training of future tissue pathologists.

The talk aims to transport attendees though a review process in which the benefits of a solid, integrated, morpho-molecular approach to pathology may become apparent.

Professor Salto-Tellez is Chair of Molecular Pathology at Queen’s University Belfast, Clinical Consultant Pathologist at the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust and Deputy Director of the Centre for Cancer Research and Cell Biology. He is a well respected researcher and is author or co-author of more than 200 internationally peer-reviewed articles in translational science, molecular pathology and diagnostics. Manuel studied Medicine in Spain (Oviedo), Germany (Aachen) and The Netherlands (Leiden). He specialized in Histopathology in the UK (Edinburgh and London) and in Molecular Pathology in the USA (Philadelphia).

The Pathology Horizons 2015 conference 5-7 November 2015, is an open conference on the future of pathology. The location is to be the world heritage site of Fraser Island, Queensland. More speakers to be announced in the near future!

There are under 3 months to go to the launch of Pathology Horizons 2015 and things are really coming together well. The venue has been decided – it is the stunning Kingfisher bay resort on the world heritage site of Fraser Island.  Attendees will get a really good rate from the hotel for the conference and the lower rate will be honoured even for an extended stay. The area is just so beautiful and there are plenty of great outdoor activities. We are going to have some outstanding speakers – more on that soon!