The Department of Eye Pathology (DEP) is a National Specialist Ophthalmic Pathology Service (NSOPS) laboratory and offers a highly specialised clinical laboratory service.
Our service is free to the NHS in England and is chargeable for private cases and those outside of England.
Additionally, the DEP also acts as a referral centre for ophthalmic specimens from abroad. We are a patient-centric department and we regularly exceed our stated target turnaround time of 90% of samples received are reported in 7 days or less.
DEP is a histopathology laboratory where materials, methods and expertise are used that allows tissue-based morphological, histochemical and immunological analysis on samples obtained from the human eye and vitreous fluid.
The core function of our department is the delivery of results and diagnosis to support clinical advice. Histopathological examination of biopsy material, either diagnostic or excisional, of any tissue from the eye or its adnexal structures is available. We employ technologically advanced equipment hand-in-hand with expert knowledge and skills; this in turn helps us in achieving consistent high-quality results and supports our diagnostic innovation to exceed basic compliance needs.
The DEP is committed to the safe and secure handling and disposal of confidential information and accurately reporting results of investigations in a timely, confidential and clinically useful manner.
We subscribe to multiple UKNEQAS schemes, including Lymphoma and Neuropathology modules. Our consultants are leads in the National Ophthalmic Pathology (NOP) EQA. We are enrolled in the UKAS accreditation scheme, where we are continually assessed against ISO: 15189.
If you would like information on how to send your samples, please contact us.
Eye Pathology Department,
UCL Institute of Ophthalmology