Said Ibrahim
Pathology Systems Integration Specialist
I make sure lab results and slide images reach the right patient record.
I specify and test the links between analysers, slide scanners, image platforms and the LIMS, and plan for the day they fail. I work with these systems every day in NHS pathology, so I test them against how the lab really works.
NHS pathology is going digital. Every new connection needs testing.
Three changes are reshaping NHS labs at once. Each one adds new connections between systems, and each connection is somewhere a result can go missing.
New LIMS
When a lab moves to a new LIMS, every analyser and middleware link has to be rebuilt, tested and signed off before a single live result flows through it.
Digital pathology
The national digital pathology network has grown to 15 NHS sites. Every scanned slide now has to reach the right case in the LIMS, first time.
AI in pathology
AI tools are being tested for live use, and staining and scanner differences can change how they behave. Each one has to prove itself on a lab's own slides.
How lab data reaches the patient record, and where it can fail
Results and slide images travel different routes to the same patient record. I work on every link along both, and these are the failures I design tests for.
- Unknown test codeThe result is held, or mapped to the wrong test.
- Duplicate sample IDA result files against the wrong patient.
- Unreadable barcodeA scanned slide can't be matched to its case.
- Wrong-case linkThe pathologist opens someone else's slides.
- Untested AI toolIt behaves differently on local stains and scanners.
- Lost flagThe report arrives without its abnormal marker.
About me
I work in NHS pathology at Synnovis, South East London’s pathology partnership, hands-on with the LIMS and with virology and serology analysers including the DiaSorin LIAISON XL and Abbott Alinity i. It shows me exactly what a mismatched sample, a missing result or a backed-up queue costs the people downstream.
That’s why I test interfaces against real lab workflows, not just message specs, and why I care about bringing a team with me when a system changes.
Hands-on in NHS pathology
LIMS, analysers and daily quality control
BSc Biochemistry, First
Kingston University, 2024
HL7 v2 and ASTM
ISO 15189 · DCB0129 · DCB0160
Trains colleagues
In specimen triage and serology