BIVDA were pleased to celebrate National Pathology Week by attending two parliamentary events and speaking at the 6th NHS Pathology Conference.
The conference, which focused on improving NHS diagnostics, was held in Birmingham. BIVDA’s President Angela Douglas and Director of Market Access and Operations Beth Loudon led a BIVDA panel and Q&A session.
Their discussion focused on three critical themes: the expansion of diagnostics into community settings, the impact of innovation and AI, and how stronger partnerships between industry and the NHS are key to delivering the ambitions of the NHS 10-Year Plan.
Beth noted that the discussion highlighted that ambitions and challenges are shared across the entire system, creating real opportunities for genuine collaboration.
From there, Angela and Beth dashed down to London for the Royal College of Pathologists’ parliamentary reception, where they joined BIVDA Chief Executive Helen Dent. Centred on this year’s theme of ‘Pathology Solutions’, the event featured insightful contributions from speakers — including hosting member Dr Simon Opher MP — highlighting the vital role of pathology services in the day-to-day running of the health service and delivering the NHS 10-Year Plan.
We were delighted that our organisation’s three most senior leaders were able to discuss BIVDA’s important work of embedding diagnostics into the NHS and supporting the Government’s three shifts with stakeholders and parliamentarians.
From there, Helen headed across the parliamentary estate to take her place at the APPG for Health.
The APPG’s roundtable event explored how the Life Sciences Sector Plan can support the delivery of the 10-Year Health Plan by accelerating NHS transformation, fostering innovation and improving access to medicines, MedTech and digital technologies.
David Lawson (DHSC), Roz Campion (Academy of Medical Sciences, previously OLS), as well as representatives of ABPI, BD and Boehringer were panellists and shared their thoughts on how government and industry can work together to strengthen the UK’s life sciences ecosystem. This included how to accelerate clinical trials, improve patient access to new treatments, and ensure that policy and regulatory frameworks and support innovation and global competitiveness.
The Chair, Sadik Al-Hassan MP, was keen to understand more about what the government can do to deliver improvements, particularly in the areas of innovation and global competitiveness.
