The International Pathology Day recognises and celebrates the contribution and achievements of pathology and laboratory medicine services that work to address global health challenges and improve the health outcomes of global communities. The 2020 focus was on the Infection through the lens of Covid-19 with an international viewpoint.

The organisers encouraged poster submissions describing the role of pathology laboratories to the world’s COVID-19 response. Posters were displayed digitally and judged by Professor Jo Martin, RCPath President; Dr Mike Osborn, RCPAth President-Elect; Dr Shubha Allard, RCPath Clinical Director for Engagement and Publishing; and Evangelos Kotsopoulos, CEO Sonic Healthcare Germany and Continental Europe. The competition was open to UK and international entrants.

The Judges felt that the poster submission from the Warwick Medical School team; Dimitris Grammatoupoulos, Emma Braybrook (WMS PhD student), Harpal Randeva, Lawrence Young and Neil Anderson described the joint efforts of WMS and UHCW and provided an excellent platform to highlight the crucial roles Pathology services played in supporting the response to the COVID-19 pandemic and also captured some of the core values of Pathology that bring together science and medicine. The poster also received praised about the high quality of the visual presentation.

Dimitris said, “We are obviously delighted to have been selected as the winners of the competition. This award most importatly recognises efforts during the pandemic of a strong team of clinicians and academics from UHCW and Univ of Warwick that led the Diagnostics response across Coventry and Warwickshire. This work successfully addressed urgent needs of the healthcare system, introduced new technologies and innovation and in parallel put in place the right tools to support research and promote advancement of knowledge.”

Dean of Medicine, Professor Sudhesh Kumar OBE was also keen to share his congratulations with the group. “This is excellent news and a fantastic achievement. Well done to the team.”