AES presented jointly with the NSF Team from Somerset Health Informatics at the Somerset Cancer Register (SCR) usergroup held on the 17th of September 2009 at Taunton Racecourse.

Since going live in December 2006 the Royal Derby Hospital pathology laboratory has reported 10,000 histopathology reports (not including supplementaries) using the PathoSys® system.

Just under 7,000 of these reports were authorised with PathoSys® interfaced to the iSoft CILMS system.

The CILMS system was replaced with the iSoft iLab (Apex) system in April 2009 and the remaining 3,000 reports have been authorised with PathoSys® interfaced to iLab (Apex).

Since mid 2008 Burton Hospitals NHS Trust pathology merged with Derby Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust pathology and both Trusts report using PathoSys®.

The next PathoSys® user group meeting will be held on the 30th November.
The meeting is being hosted by Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and will take place at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle. PathoSys® is in use interfaced to the iSoft iLab ( Apex ) system at the RVI as part of the ongoing NEwPath Pathology Network project. Please contact us for more information.

AES has been awarded a contract by the UK MoD to provide technical support to the Titan and Trojan Engineering Tank System (ETS) Batch Test 5 at Bovington. The contract is a continuation of the excellent support provided by the company during Batch Test 4 during 2008. Under the terms of the contract AES will supply Subject Matter Expertise (SME) and Trials Support Engineers to work alongside military staff from the Royal Engineers Trials and Development Unit. AES staff will be involved in the co-ordination, management and monitoring of all Level 1, 2 and 3 maintenance support tasks during the period of Titan and Trojan Batch Test 5, which is expected to run from Apr 2009 to Mar 2010.

Derby Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust migrated to iLab from its previous CILMS system on Monday the 20th April 2009.

PathoSys® was purchased at Derby as part of a larger iSoft contract to create an EPR (Electronic Patient Record). This contract included the upgrade to iLab and linkage to iCM allowing PathoSys® pathology reports to viewed electronically outside the laboratory.

PathoSys® which had been interfaced and in use since 2006 with the CILMS system migrated together with the laboratory. AES Medical worked together with iSoft both prior to and during the go live to ensure as smooth a migration as possible.

Derby represents our fourth live iSoft iLab (Apex) site. PathoSys® is now linked to over 15% of the iLab sites in the United Kingdom. AES Medical would like to thank both iSoft and the laboratory staff at Derby Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust for their assistance in making this a success.

East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust (EKHUFT) pathology laboratory has gone live with the PathoSys® Bowel Screening module.
This follows inital live trials and refinement at Yeovil District Hospital NHS Foundation Trust which is live with the PathoSys® Bowel Screening module linked to the Clinisys Labcentre system.

The EKHUFT serves a population of over 700,000 across three acute district general hospital sites, Margate, Canterbury and Ashford. Cellular pathology (Histopathology & Cytopathology) is based at William Harvey Hospital, Ashford.

AES Medical is continuing to work with both trusts to further refine and improve the PathoSys® Bowel Screening module which is a combination of the Royal College of Pathologists dataset and NHS Screening programme pathology proforma.

This combination allows the pathology reporting system PathoSys® to automatically populate and store the proforma saving the pathologist time and providing an electronic patient record (EPR).
The PathoSys® system at EKHUFT is interfaced to the iSoft iLab (formerly Apex) system. The interface provides PathoSys® with electronic demographics and iLab with the final authorised report.

AES has joined the UK MoD Framework Agreement for Technical Support (FATS), a faster and more efficient contractual route to procure technical support. It offers pre-agreed terms and conditions, rates and discounts and it uses

Following an extensive competitive tender process, the UK MoD has awarded AES a 5 year, Pan IPT contract for the continued provision of their Machine Care Plus® equipment early failure detection service. This single, overarching contract ensures maximum flexibility, excellent value for money and a consistent approach across all land equipment types worldwide.

The contract, which commenced in Apr 2009, covers oil sampling and analysis of engines and major assemblies fitted to the following equipment types, fielded by UK land forces in the UK, Germany, Canada and on operations world-wide:

• Challenger 2 (CR2) Main Battle Tank (MBT) and Driver Training Tank (DTT).
• Challenger Armoured Repair and Recovery Vehicle (CRARRV).
• Warrior (WR) Infantry Fighting Vehicle.
• AS90 Self-Propelled Artillery System.
• Titan and Trojan Engineering Tank Systems (ETS).
• Beach Recovery Vehicle (BRV).

Users are able to view and download information via the Defence Information Infrastructure (DII). AES now has a Machine Care Plus® application server hosted in The Land Environment Portal (TLEP), a secure shared-working environment which enables military organisations and industry to share information and work collaboratively on projects. The ability to access the Machine Care Plus® application from the DII means that users have easy and rapid access to information. In addition, AES staff, who are familiar with UK land platforms and associated equipment support issues, provide training, expert advice and regular briefings.

The Early Failure Detection Centre has been awarded their largest single contract yet from the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) to continue to process fluid samples from the British Army fleet of land vehicles.

The Early Failure Detection Centre will continue to test oil, fuel and coolant samples on a regular basis from over 1,500 Land vehicles in the British Army fleet. This now means that the UK MoD and British Army can take advantage of the Machine Care Plus® service and secure communications network to receive critical fleet information much faster than previously.

The UK MoD described the tender submission as being “very impressive, both commercially and technically” and upon the award of the contract the Early Failure Detection Centre Manger has commented: “AES continues to be the recognised provider of fluid analysis services to the UK MoD Land forces and has a strong track record in this field that can be traced back to 1995. This latest contract award highlights our commitment to expanding the Defence business and gives the strongest indication yet to the market place that we are leading our field and fully committed to providing a fast, high quality and cost effective service across the whole of the market.”

BAE Systems has awarded AES a 1 year contract extension for the provision of oil sampling and analysis services in support of the TERRIER® Armoured Engineer Vehicle, prototype and demonstrator vehicles. Terrier® is the replacement for the Combat Engineer Tractor (CET).

AES has been contracted to continue providing technical support and assistance to BAE Systems through the provision of the Machine Care Plus® early failure detection service which is based upon the analysis of engine, transmission and hydraulic oil samples, and equipment usage data. The TERRIER® Armoured Engineer Vehicles undergoing trials and development benefit from readily available and comprehensive information, which is produced using AES expert decision support software and the experience of ex-military technical staff.

Oil samples are taken and operating parameters recorded by the equipment crews to provide the raw data for analysis by AES. Once the data has been processed and interpreted condition assessments and remedial actions are made available to the project manager and key personnel via a secure data dial-up telephone connection.

It is extremely important to identify potential design or operating problems at an early stage, by gathering as much data as possible, which is then analysed to identify trends or anomalies. The Original Equipment Manufacturer specialists are then able to conduct additional physical checks to confirm the significance of these occurrences, and if necessary take action to prevent the situation re-occurring. In an extreme case, a system might require to be enhanced or re-designed and the same process that assisted in the identification of the problem can be used to confirm the remedial action has been successful.

AES software development staff have also assisted BAE Systems Reliability Engineers by writing a software application to efficiently process TERRIER® HUMS (Health and usage monitoring Systems) data. The application organises large amounts of equipment data into a more usable format. It is very flexible and can be adopted to process a varying range of parameters which can then be linked to the oil analysis and usage data.

It is envisaged that the information gained and lessons learnt during the TERRIER® trials will be used to support the production vehicles once introduced into service. This means that a ‘Condition Based’ service and proactive maintenance regime can be used to ensure maximum availability and reduce equipment support costs.