The winners of the IBMS Awards were announced at the end of last month. Here we get a brief insight into the work behind the successful entries.
- Team of the Year
Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust – Laboratory Medicine Divisional Training Team (Sponsored by: Cirdan)
This pan-pathology training group acts to ensure its teams are trained and competent to carry out their assigned roles. On top of routine training and competency-related duties within the departments, the team is heavily involved in public engagement events throughout the year. The team consciously works to increase the support it can offer to students in higher education institutions, attending regular events at the universities, alongside colleagues from elsewhere in the Greater Manchester network. The team has increased capacity for placement year trainee biomedical scientists from the nearby universities, from 13 placements in 2022–23, to 21 placements in 2023–24, an increase of over 60% in one year.
- Laboratory of the Year
The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust - Newcastle Advanced Therapies (Sponsored by: BD)
This 24-strong team specialises in laboratory cell and gene processing and GMP manufacture of advanced therapies and is one of the largest CAR-T providers in the country and has one of the largest bone marrow transplant stem cell services in the UK. This small team manages to deliver research and clinical priorities and maintain the GMP facilities and increasing regulatory standards, making a significant impact on people’s lives by collectively managing a broad portfolio of activity.
- Best Use of Research, Innovation or Technology
Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust – Pathology and Transfusion (Sponsored by: bioMérieux)
Led by Pathology Quality Manager Jonathan Boxshall, the primary objective of the team’s research was to assess the safety and viability of transporting clinical blood products for transfusion via drone, testing the hypothesis that there was no significant difference in the quality of blood products transported by drone versus road vehicle. The pilot for the project ran between Wansbeck and Berwick (53 miles) and Wansbeck to Alnwick (24 miles) and delivered the UK’s first patient pathology samples in Northumberland by drone, flew the UK’s longest drone delivery flight and saved 1228kg in CO2 emissions. The study also concluded that drone delivery did not impair red blood cell viability.
- Training and Development and Biomedical Science Champion
HCA Healthcare UK Laboratories
In 2020 HCA Labs had no IBMS training approval or development pathways. Valued colleagues left for other labs if they wanted to undertake their registration or specialist portfolio, and staff were frustrated they couldn’t progress through IBMS professional qualifications. Fast-forward to today and HCA Labs holds IBMS training approval in all departments and has an active and thriving training programme. After three years it has just started its 32nd candidate on their registration portfolio, welcomed its 19th placement student and celebrated its 14th successful portfolio verification. The change was thanks to a three-year training strategy, with a dedicated training manager and training officers, driven by colleague feedback.
- Partnership Working
University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust with the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine and the Defence Medical Academy (Sponsored by: Source LDPath)
This collaborative multidisciplinary pre- and post-registration programme is aimed at providing the Ministry of Defence with professionally registered military biomedical scientists. Led by an NHS group training lead, stakeholders instituted an IBMS Accredited registration portfolio. An NHS military group was also set up that meets monthly to discuss all issues pertaining to military biomedical scientist training at the NHS trust. During 2022–24 a total of 15 HCPC-registered military biomedical scientists have been added to the total pool of biomedical scientists within defence. The verification pass rate is 100% and has been maintained annually with an average of five placements supported annually.
- Sustainability
The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust - Integrated Laboratory Medicine (Sponsored by: Sarstedt)
Newcastle Hospitals NHSFT was the first healthcare organisation in the world to declare a climate emergency, in 2019.
The Integrated Laboratory Medicine Sustainability Team was created in April 2022 to support the trust’s net zero strategy. The team’s main focus is on reducing single-use plastics wherever possible (saving over one million specimen bags a year), and its flagship project is to reduce waste associated with sample transport. One project has been successfully rolled out to stakeholders that incorporates reusable sample transport boxes, negating the need for plastic specimen bags.
- Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
HCA Healthcare UK Laboratories
HCA’s Diversity, Inclusion, Equity and Belonging (DEIB) strategy, which began in 2022, aims to create lasting and meaningful change. It recommends cultural and organisational improvements, steps to connect leadership with colleagues, and encourages honest and open dialogue. Over 100 colleagues were invited to help design and shape the new vision. The DEIB strategy focuses on four strategic goals: leadership, culture, talent and patient care. Under these pillars, a number of groups, events and initiatives have been established. These include a biannual Vital Voices staff survey, an active Pride group, a network of mental health first aiders, and celebrations of Black History Month and the 75th anniversary of Windrush.
- Educational Institution
Staffordshire University
Staffordshire University has established a reputation for innovation, accessible delivery, and patient-centred education. Its degree apprenticeship programme continues to experience annual growth, evident in the 2023–24 intake, which saw 48 new students. Its on-programme community now totals 146 apprentices spread across 30 NHS trusts and pathology providers across England. The year 2023 marked the graduation of its third cohort, contributing to a total of over 70 HCPC-registered biomedical scientists who have entered the workforce since the programme’s inception in 2017. The programme consistently outperforms university benchmarks, with 75% of graduates achieving first-class degree classifications and an apprenticeship distinction rate exceeding 90%.
- Educational Institution
University of Salford
The University of Salford exhibits unwavering dedication to excellence, innovation and impact in the field of biomedical science education. It has a consistently good quality achievement rate for the degree apprenticeship programme with excellent honours degree outcomes – 90% of the learners pass first time, many of those with good (2.1) or very good (1st class) degrees, indicating outstanding and diligent support from the programme team in enabling learners to achieve their goals. Another indicator of performance comes from 100% of completers going into biomedical scientist positions.
- Public Engagement
Lesley Cybichowski – Blood Sciences Department, Broomfield Hospital, Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust
The department’s student engagement events are intended to inspire young minds to take up careers in science, especially biomedical sciences. The numbers of students who have attended the career events it supported has ranged from 75 at the university, to 1400 students at the secondary school events. Feedback is always good, and work experience placements are often arranged for students. Public and hospital staff engagement events also raise the profile of pathology within the entire hospital and community.
- Rising Star
Grant Lumgair – NHS Lothian, Western General Hospital, Edinburgh
Grant joined the Blood Sciences Department at the Western General Hospital in Edinburgh in 2021. Having graduated from Robert Gordon University, he now works in the proteins section, and participates in the 24/7 out-of-hours rota for biochemistry. Here, he has quickly mastered the techniques and interpretive skills necessary for myeloma screening and many other gel electrophoresis techniques, such as alpha-1-antitrypsin phenotyping, CSF oligoclonal band detection and alkaline phosphatase electrophoresis. He has also undertaken more esoteric assays, such as cryoglobulin detection, porphyria screening and CSF spectroscopy.
- Biomedical Science Leader
Daniel David Kearns CSci FIBMS - Centre for Liver and Gastrointestinal Research at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust and the Institute of Immunology and Immunotherapy, University of Birmingham
Motivated, positively engaged and an inspiration to his staff, Daniel is an HCPC-registered biomedical scientist with a wealth of hands-on experience and a broad range of skills in clinical and research science, laboratory management and professional/regulatory policy and procedure. His scope of practice spans a broad cross-section of biomedical science, primarily in histology (including routine and specialised techniques), post-mortem pathology and quality. Since 2023 he has been the Head Biomedical Scientist and Laboratory Manager of the Centre for Liver and Gastrointestinal Research and can often be found in a labcoat undertaking experiments, optimising assays or supporting the team.
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