Ready to support, always innovating: The Clinisys Customer Summit, Ireland, 2025
This year’s annual conference in Dublin’s Docklands heard that the market for pathology IT systems is “tricky.” But Clinisys is still supporting its Irish customers, delivering beneficial partnerships, working on its roadmap so labs can benefit from digital and AI innovation in the future.
One of the themes of this year’s Clinisys Customer Summit, Ireland, was that this is a challenging time to be investing in or deploying a major IT system. However, the 4th annual conference in Dublin’s Docklands heard that Clinisys is responding by continuing to support its Irish customers, while investing in partnerships and innovation.
Waiting for the national solution
One of the current challenges is MedLIS, the Health Service Executive’s initiative to implement a National Laboratory Information System. MedLIS was launched in 2012 and has so far gone live in one hospital, reflecting the scale and complexity of national digital health
Recent media coverage, for example in the Medical Independent, has raised questions about the
“The current landscape presents a planning challenge,” said Michael Clancy, Clinisys’ Business Development Director. “Organisations are weighing whether to invest in local or regional system now, or to continue aligning with the national strategy as it evolves.”
Benefits of upgrading to the latest LIMS
Amid the uncertainty, Clinisys is encouraging its laboratory information management system customers to move to the most up-to-date version of its LIMS.
For most labs, this will mean migrating from WinPath V5 to Clinisys WinPath, which Michael Clancy said gives labs “the benefit of being on a stable, secure, best in class system.”
This is a journey that a number of hospitals are on right now. Adam Chapman, Programme Director, joined the summit by Teams to say the project at Tallaght University Hospital is “two to four weeks ahead of target” thanks to close, on-site working between Clinisys and the project team, and the active management of partners.
Specialist Medical Scientist Bobby Kilkenny told the summit that the major driver for the change is that V5 is at the end of life and has become unstable.
But he also said there will be better patient safety thanks to improved integration with other clinical systems, and better efficiency, thanks to
Security, stability and innovation on the roadmap
Jake Morrow, Senior Product Manager, outlined more of the benefits of upgrades and updates. He said the Clinisys WinPath 2025 release was all about security and responding to the ransomware attacks that have impacted both UK and Ireland healthcare systems in recent years.
But it also enabled auto-registration, introduced clean, modern interfaces for some modules, and came with enhancements to WinPath Reporting Module to support digital pathology and the use of AI.
The next big release, 2026, will have a
“WinPath V5 is as old as I am. We both came into the world in 1988,” he joked. “It’s true there is some heavy lifting involved in moving from these old systems to modern systems, but you get better security and new features.”
Addressing resource challenges
The reference to heavy lifting touched on another challenge facing Ireland’s healthcare system: a lack of resources and staff. This is a particular problem for major IT implementations and upgrades, because of the design input and user acceptance testing required.
It’s another area in which Clinisys is actively working to support customers, and the summit arranged for Jennifer Lyle, the Chief Innovation Officer at Cymetryc, to fly in from Phoenix, Arizona, to explain how it can help.
Cymetryc supports the creation of test scripts and massively improves communication between testers, reviewers and project managers, who have dashboards to show what is happening – or, as Jennifer Lyle put it: “are we on track, and will we make it?” in time to act.
Transforming primary care ordering
A further challenge is that although Ireland’s Sláintecare
A particular issue is how tests are ordered and results reported. Many GPs, for instance, still use paper to order tests, a problem that Clinisys is addressing by working with Clanwilliam Health.
The two companies have signed an agreement to integrate Clinisys ICE order communications and results reporting into Clanwilliam practice management systems, starting with Socrates.
Simon Hurst, VP, Strategic Growth,said: “With Clanwilliam holding a 97% market share in the GP practice management system market, this integration will position ICE as the standard for digital ordering in primary care.”
One of the many benefits of digital ordering is that demand management and clinical decision support tools can be introduced, to assist clinicians in selecting and ordering the correct tests.
Leigh Scott, Clinical PreSales Consultant at Clinisys, explained that the MedCurrent OrderWise CDS is already helping hospital staff to make better informed decisions about the radiology tests they order for patients, and has strong potential in pathology.
OrderWise is tightly integrated with Clinisys ICE, so clinicians can access national and local guidelines within their day-to-day workflows and pick the most timely and appropriate tests for their patients.
Engaging with AI for clinical benefit
The importance of staying aligned with best practice was underlined by Dr. Pádraig Keane, Assistant Manager at the Irish National Accreditation Board, who discussed the importance of accreditation in building government, professional and public confidence in laboratory services.
INAB has just finished accrediting all of Ireland’s labs against a new standard: ISO15189:2022. Dr Keane argued this is a “much improved standard” because it is “less prescriptive” and “more interested in outcomes” than its predecessors.
This makes it “easier to accommodate different labs” that work in different ways. Meanwhile, the coming world is one in which laboratories will make much greater use of AI.
Professor Neil Anderson, Consultant Clinical Biochemist and Clinical Director of clinical diagnostic services at University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire, said that in 2018, there were 300 articles on the use of AI in histopathology on the biomedical sciences database, PubMed.
Last year, there were 19,000. This, he admitted, might be worrying if “people feel like AI is being done to them.” But he urged his audience to take control by thinking through what they want from AI, and how it can “add value” to the testing process.
He also used the brain-to-brain loop concept to explain that AI might add value at almost any point. In China, AI is already being used for vein ID, so robots can take blood. In the US, labs are using AI to monitor samples, pick up abnormal transit times or temperatures, and adjust result ranges.
Clinisys’ role in the future
The effective use of AI will require solid IT foundations. “Companies like Clinisys have an important part to play,” he said. “Those 19,000 papers may lead to 100 new algorithms. They can provide the platform that will enable them to be deployed.”
That’s why modern IT and innovation matters. “Clinisys is here for you,” Simon Hurst reminded his audience. “We would be delighted to move you to Clinisys WinPath, if you want to go on that journey. We will work with you on order comms. We will continue to innovate. We understand the market is tricky, but we are happy to support you in any way we can.”
