Davies Vet Specialists (DVS) now has access to an on-site, dedicated veterinary clinical pathology laboratory. It is staffed and managed by clinical pathologist Roger Powell, a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Clinical Pathology and the Royal College of Pathology.

The laboratory delivers fast and accurate results for haematology and biochemistry tests (within 30 minutes to one hour), that are validated and cross-checked by the clinical pathologist. “Simply producing a fast, ‘black and white’ result is not enough though.” says Roger Powell. “How the result is produced and the clinical context are crucial and this is the clinical pathologist’s job. I am also responsible for whether any significant biases or errors have been introduced which could invalidate the result. This is most effectively achieved through close dialogue with the clinician involved and greatly improves the quality of data available for case management.’’

Although many tests still need to be carried out at referral specialist labs, having a single central processing hub on-site holds some other advantages too. It improves data retrieval and tracking, reduces submission or transcription errors and facilitates serial comparison of an animal’s results. This is easily achieved with a Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS).

Roger said: “Essentially the on-site lab brings speed and greater lab testing expertise to the practice, aimed at maximising the diagnostic return from a huge range of diseases and patients. The laboratory service is available to all veterinary practices and we would be happy to receive samples from first opinion vets or provide diagnostic help and interpretation for any in-house results.’’

For further details visit the DVS website at http://www.vetspecialists.co.uk/