FUJIFILM Healthcare UK and One Dorset Pathology agree MES for digital pathology to support NHS pathology across Dorset

With the largest market share across the globe in digital pathology software¹, FUJIFILM Healthcare are experts in understanding our customers’ requirements and supporting the various stakeholders involved in ensuring an efficient digital histopathology delivery, with the aim of benefitting patient care.

FUJIFILM Healthcare UK and One Dorset Pathology (ODP) are delighted to announce the signing of a new managed equipment service (MES) for Digital Pathology that will improve the NHS’ delivery across Dorset.

FUJIFILM Healthcare UK and ODP’s long standing relationship within Histopathology first began in 2020 with a pilot conducted at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital site. ODP is comprised of three sites: Royal Bournemouth Hospital, Poole Hospital, and Dorset County Hospital. The three sites are administered by two separate NHS trusts’, University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust (UHD) comprised of Bournemouth and Poole, and Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (DCH) responsible for Dorchester.

The Dorset Pathology Hub, opened in 2024 at the Royal Bournemouth site, processing over 9 million tests per year, improving patient diagnostics and supporting over 200 staff as part of the One Dorset Pathology network². The consolidation of the pathology delivery across the county is aimed to address the growing number of cancer patients, as well as meeting their targets for turnaround times. This is aligned to the NHS UK Histology reporting target of 98% of diagnostic reports to be made available within 10 days, which came into effect in March 2025³.

Post the successful pilot of the FUJIFILM solution, Synapse Pathology, an agreement to contractually implement and integrate the solution was signed in 2025. Building on the strong relationship, ODP made the considered decision to collaborate further with FUJIFILM Healthcare UK to enter a seven-year managed equipment service (MES) agreement, designed to modernise diagnostics across NHS pathology laboratories in Dorset. This strategic initiative will see FUJIFILM Healthcare UK providing and managing all necessary digital pathology infrastructure, including, the relationship of the following suppliers: Sysmex UK Digital Pathology , A.Menarini Diagnostics, Augnito, Barco, Ibex Medical Analytics, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Extential Solutions, who all form part of the installation for slide scanners, AI, reporting and data analytics, cloud infrastructure and more. The MES agreement is underpinned utilising a full cloud solution through AWS, with ODP having transitioned their digital pathology image storage from Microsoft Azure.

Under the MES agreement, FUJIFILM Healthcare UK will provide ongoing service, upgrades, and support for the equipment, removing the burden of capital investment and ensuring the Trust always has access to up-to-date diagnostic tools. Paul Newman commented on the agreement:

“FUJIFILM Healthcare UK has a long-standing history of successfully delivering large scale and national projects involving multiple stakeholders across both the NHS and private sectors. Our confident and collaborative approach enhances the entire workflow, ultimately improving patient care for all. We look forward to continuing our valued partnership with ODP.”

Aligning with the government’s 10 Year Health Plan and the NHS’s strategic priorities, the MES agreement between FUJIFILM Healthcare UK and ODP plays a crucial role in supporting the transition from analogue to digital, one of the NHS’s three big shifts⁴. This agreement directly contributes to the modernisation of healthcare services, a key step in supporting and improving patient care, workflow and the needs for a digitally enabled healthcare system.

Synapse Pathology has been proven to deliver digital images for diagnosis 1.7 hours faster than glass slides, while increasing collaboration and communication⁵. Synapse Pathology has an open-platform, vendor-neutral approach to support Pathology services with an efficient, robust and cost-effective proposition. Achieved through streamlined image analysis resulting in faster diagnosis while supporting further digital pathology advances such as AI.

Ashley Ballard, BMS advanced practitioner, University Hospitals Dorset: “We went live with the Synapse Pathology system from Fujifilm in April this year, since then we have already seen a significant Improvement in our histology turnaround times even with only half of our cases being reported digitally so far. Deployment of the solution has been a complex process – we are still finalising the rollout of advanced AI, business intelligence, and in-app reporting tools as well as completing the rollout of the solution to the remaining One Dorset Pathology sites – however, Fujifilm have been excellent partners in this, always being responsive to our requirements. We aim to complete the deployment by early 2026, by which time 100% of our histology workload will be reported digitally; with digital MDTs, AI assistance, digital outsourcing, and smart reporting tools all being in place to streamline the reporting process and boost productivity, we will maximise efforts to improve performance against national targets.”

The transformation to a fully digitalised diagnostics solution across Dorset’s Pathology services aims to improve patient care through increased diagnostic speed, accuracy and standardisation, underpinned by the digital technologies comprised within the MES ensuring a future-proofed installation which can expand with further advances.

FUJIFILM Healthcare UK are excited to continue our support and commitment to One Dorset Pathology.

References

• Fitt, Imogen. “Digital Pathology – World 2024.” Signify Research, 13 Sept. 2024, https://www.signifyresearch.net/market-intelligence/digital-pathology-world-2024/
• University Hospitals Dorset, NHS Foundation Trust (2024) Annual Report Summary 2023/24. Available at: annual_report_summary_23-24.pdf
• Biomedical Scientist “Transforming Histopathology” Jan 2024 https://thebiomedicalscientist.net/2023/10/02/transforminghistopathology#:~:text=Within%20this%20plan%20are%20the,10%20days%20by%20March%20202
• UK Government ‘’FIT FOR THE FUTURE 10 Year Health Plan for England’’ July 2025 July 2025 https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/686639056569be0acf74db89/fit-for-the-future-10-year-health-plan-for-england-executive-summary.pdf
• Lujan G, Kellough DA, Frankel WL, Chhibber NN, Parwani AV, Chen W, Li Z, Lombardo A, Walsh J, Lloyd M. Faster Than Glass: A Digital Pathology Workflow Unlocks Major Time-Savings. United States & Canadian Academy of Pathology’s (USCAP) 111th Annual Meeting. Los Angeles, CA. March 19-24, 2022.