Ying Cui
Tissue Handling Technician
TELL US A BIT ABOUT YOUR ROLE
I am remarkably proud to be a part of PathLAKE Oxford consortium in computational pathology, an UK Research and Innovation project led by Professor Clare Verrill and Professor Jens Rittscher, focusing on improving workflow efficiency for reporting prostate biopsies, and developing novel subtypes of prostate cancer. I am actively involved in converting prostate cancer diagnostic slides to digitised images.
I was originally trained as medical doctor in Sun Yat-sen University, China before obtaining a DPhil in Physiology in Brasenose College, University of Oxford, and working as a Phlebotomist, clinical trial administrator and Researcher in Oxford University Hospitals and University of Oxford.
My driving motivation is to help patients and care about medical colleagues. Working in a unique multi-disciplinary team provide me the opportunity to contribute my knowledge and skills in digital pathology through work already undertaken to allow better patient outcomes such as enabling pathologists to consult on rare cases much more quickly and efficiently.
WHAT IS THE MOST MEANINGFUL ASPECT OF YOUR WORK?
Successfully adopting a flexible working pattern has been hugely beneficial in helping me to balance my work responsibilities with my family commitments, which brings meaning and purpose to my life by allowing me to use my talents that makes me extremely valuable in the workplace and to my family. My engagement in pathology digitalisation demonstrates a larger picture reflecting today’s demand for AI-driven diagnostics and will drive AI innovation in pathology for the UK and create the world’s largest depository of annotated digital whole slide images.
CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT SOMETHING YOU’VE DONE, CONTRIBUTED TO THAT YOU’RE MOST PROUD OF?
I have been instrumental in establishing procedures that allow my team to get a constant flow of slides stored in a repository outside Oxford and ensure the traceability of slides. I have worked extremely hard to establish a close collaboration with members of OUH Cellular Pathology to facilitate the most efficient way of scanning slides. I have undertaken the vast task of slide scanning for the PrompT study (Computational Image Analysis in 2 Large Prostate Cancer Cohorts) and have achieved Award for Excellence on the successful scanning for the majority of slides by taking a systematic approach and exceptional organisation skills.
I have organised and fundraised to purchase, deliver and donate certified PPE to the NHS over the past few months: the recent consignments were of 790 face shields to OUH and 300 medical masks to St Andrew’s Care Home, and further donated £1400 to Oxford Hospitals Charity to support the wellbeing of our amazing staff.
WHAT CHANGES WOULD YOU MOST LIKE TO SEE IN THE MEDICAL SCIENCES IN THE NEXT 100 YEARS?
As I look ahead to the next century, I image that cognitive thinking and AI play an essential role in diagnosis, so that clinical staff will know precisely and promptly how to evidence-based medicine in real-time. Specifically, medical practitioners will have adequate understanding of pain, especially chronic pain, and its mechanisms and bring our patients a better quality of life in the absence of a long-term cure.