HORIBA Medical To Present Webinar Discussing Blood Cell Morphology Basics

HORIBA UK Ltd, Medical announces that the latest webinar in its new educational webinar series will focus on “An introduction to morphology”. Scheduled for Thursday 15th April 2021 from 11:00 to 12:00 BST, Andrew Fisher FIBMS MSc, Technical Specialist at HORIBA Medical, will present on the basics of blood cell morphology.

Blood cell morphology is extremely important in the routine Haematology department, enabling the observer to provide a definitive diagnosis. HORIBA Medical recognises that although automated haematology analysers have improved in terms of detecting abnormal cells, visual interpretation is still essential. However, due to increasing workload and a reduction in the number of experienced Biomedical Scientists, one to one training and competency assessment in blood cell morphology can be challenging.

For this reason, HORIBA has devised a portfolio of educational tools to support morphology training. The webinar is one such tool aimed at students and inexperienced staff members and will start with a basic insight into white blood cell morphology. This will provide an overview of the key differences between normal Neutrophils, Lymphocytes, Monocytes, Eosinophils and Basophils. The webinar will then demonstrate how to easily use HORIBA’s Quality Slide Program (QSP 2.0) for laboratory training and competency assessment in blood cell morphology using virtual slide evaluations. A final Q&A session will provide opportunity to discuss specific questions with HORIBA blood cell morphology experts.

“By continuing to build our blood cell morphology educational portfolio, we aim to assist senior staff and lab managers in their training of students and inexperienced staff members,” explained Andy Fisher, HORIBA Medical. “One of the essential steps in laboratory accreditation is the assessment of staff skills and continuous training which this webinar and our QSP 2.0 cross haematology platform qualification tool support. We aim to help to develop staff confidence and improve blood film morphology by providing a simple means of training and assessing staff competencies.”

In addition to the webinar and Quality Slide Program (QSP 2.0), other materials available to support education in blood cell morphology can be found in HORIBA’s new Academic resource centre website. This includes back issues of HORIBA’s monthly educational QSP Newsletter, offering detailed morphology case studies, disease focuses, top morphology tips, slide reviews and quizzes. Also available to view online on HORIBA’s website are other recent recorded webinars presenting on various haematology focused subjects, including Biological Thrombophilia and blood analysis quality control.