12.15 BD Sponsored Workshop: Small Drop, Big Impact: Launching the Capillary Blood Sampling Recommendations, Karen Perkins and Sophie Hepburn

Capillary sampling with back-to-laboratory analysis can enable the NHS strategic shift from hospital to community and treatment to prevention by providing a patient-centric alternative to traditional venipuncture.
The newly formed Patient-Centred Testing & Sampling (PaCTS) Group invite you to join them in launching the UK recommendations for capillary blood sampling. As the first published capillary sampling guidelines globally, this marks an important milestone in how laboratories can enable a shift to more patient-centric care.
Hear from Karen Perkins and Sophie Hepburn on ways to navigate this rapidly evolving field whilst keeping safety and quality paramount.

12.15 Binding Site Sponsored Workshop: Multiple Sclerosis: What it is and how it’s diagnosed, Nehir Banaz, PhD – Medical Science Liaison
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory demyelinating disease of the central nervous system affecting 2.9 million people worldwide. This presentation reviews MS disease courses and focuses on the 2024 revisions of the McDonald diagnostic criteria (Montalban et al., Lancet Neurol 2025). New topographical inclusion of the optic nerve and incorporation of paraclinical biomarkers (central vein sign, paramagnetic rim lesions, and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) positivity) enable earlier diagnosis. Notably, the κ free light chain index (≥6.1) is considered interchangeable with oligoclonal bands for defining positive CSF, providing alternatives for demonstrating dissemination in time.

Industry sponsored workshops