Laboratory Medicine Directorate

Department in Depth

In addition to the main laboratory departments outlined, the Directorate also provides a number of specialised services on a regional or national level.  The reference pathology services provided at St. James’s are a mixture of de facto and designated centres and include the following:

The Porphyrin Laboratory in the Biochemistry Department provides a comprehensive biochemical and molecular diagnostic service for porphyric disorders. This service is the de facto porphyria reference laboratory for the Republic of Ireland with over 30 years experience in this field of expertise.  The diagnostic service directly supports a clinical porphyria service run by the consultant Chemical Pathologist in St. James’s Hospital.

The Cancer Molecular Diagnostics (CMD) Laboratory was established in 2001 through the Cancer Strategy Group of the Hospital under the auspices of The National Cancer Strategy (1996). The service provided includes an extensive repertoire of specialised analyses, primarily in the molecular diagnosis of haematological malignancies, the molecular evaluation of response to therapy and the stratification of patient groups based on their molecular profile. The technology is particularly necessary to aid in diagnosing haematological malignancy, lymphoproliferative disorders and selected solid tumours; it allows certain cancers to be treated based on their “genetic” profile and it is the best methodology available to determine the success of cancer treatment and in selecting treatments regimes for particular cancers. The CMD laboratory is the only laboratory of its type in the country and acts as a 'de facto' national molecular diagnostic service, providing molecular analyses and clinical interpretation of these results for all national hospitals and is involved in many collaborative links both inter-departmental, nationally and internationally. 

The Coagulation laboratory is a national referral laboratory, which supports the National Centre for Hereditary Coagulation Disorders. It also performs analyses and investigation of both bleeding and thrombotic disorders for hospitals throughout the country. It provides a national service for the investigation of disorders of haemostasis and thrombosis.

The Cryobiology (Stem Cell) laboratory forms a part of the National Adult Bone Marrow Transplant unit and provides laboratory support for this unit.  It is currently undergoing accreditation to be compliant with the EU Tissue directive. It processes stem cells and bone marrows for the national transplant unit at St James Hospital and other EBMT accredited unrelated donor programs, dealing with approximately 750 procedures annually    

Haematology: The Haemoglobinopathy service provided by Haematology is a de facto national service, serving among many hospitals nationwide and regionally, and all of the Dublin Maternity and Children’s Hospitals (except OLCH, Crumlin) for haemoglobinopathy investigations

The Immunophenotyping service provided by Haematology is a de facto national service.  This service is a vital part of a multi-disciplinary laboratory service for the malignant haematology and bone marrow transplant service based at St James’s Hospital (SJH) and provides comprehensive multi disciplinary diagnoses in collaboration with the LabMed Cancer Molecular Diagnostics and Histopathology laboratories at SJH, and the National Centre for Medical Genetics based at Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital, Crumlin.

The Haematinics and Transplant Drug Monitoring Laboratory in Haematology is an International Reference Laboratory for Haematinic Analysis, providing a Consultancy service to CDCP, Atlanta, Georgia, the FDA, Washington, US National Institute for Health and the UK National Institute for Biological Standards and Control (NIBSC).  A Staff member of the Haematology Haematinics and Transplant Drug Monitoring Laboratory is a member of UK NEQAS Scientific Advisory Committee and the International Committee for Standardisation of Haematinic Assays.

The Histopathology Department provides a national dental pathology service receiving specimens from throughout the country and provides a regional electron microscopy service.

The Immunology Department is the Irish co-ordinator for a European study on the diagnosis and treatment of Wegener's granulomatoses and holds the National register of patients with Primary Immune deficiency and has established home therapy protocols for these disorders.

The Irish Mycobacteria Reference Laboratory (IMRL) provides a routine and reference service for diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis and non-tuberculous mycobacterial disease.

The Microbiology laboratory provides comprehensive support to the National Bone Marrow Transplant unit, the National tertiary referral centre for Hepatitis B&C, the national centre for Plastics, Burns and Reconstructive surgery; as well as the supra regional services for HIV and Genitourinary medicine.

The National MRSA Reference Laboratory provides a nationwide service for laboratory, clinical and infection control aspects of MRSA.

All the Laboratories are accredited. Most are accredited in accordance with CPA (UK) Ltd standards (incorporating ISO 15189:2003, “Medical Laboratories - Requirements for Quality and Competence”). The Cryobiology laboratory, as part of the Tissue Establishment in St James’s Hospital, has been awarded a license by the Irish Medicine Board to practice in accordance with EU Standards and our Transfusion service is accredited to ISO 15189 by the Irish National Accreditation Board in accordance with Irish Legislation.

The LabMed Directorate provides a wide range of laboratory medicine services to doctors and clinical teams on behalf of their patients. These services include:

• The availability of a large repertoire of examinations and the results of those laboratory examinations and guidance on interpretation of results
• Consultant Clinical advice in all laboratory medicine disciplines
• Participation of laboratory consultants and scientific staff in multidisciplinary team meetings to help maximise best practice and effect best patient outcomes
• Phlebotomy Services
• Infectious Disease Surveillance
• Infection Control
• Molecular Diagnostics service
• Research (Basic and Translational) and Development
• A Point of Care Testing laboratory support service

Autopsy - Information for Relatives (PDF 448Kb)