National Pathology Week
National Pathology Week (NPW) is our annual celebration of pathology, when we highlight the important contribution pathologists make to healthcare. Working in partnership with pathologists and laboratory scientists, our programme of events and activities aims to engage people of all ages, and improve public awareness and understanding of how pathologists and scientists diagnose disease.
We welcome pathology-related events and activities of all sizes, and various formats (including online), in our nationwide programme. We’ve got lots of ideas and free resources to help with planning and delivering great activities.
National Pathology Week 2026
National Pathology Week 2026 will run from 2 to 8 November. The theme is tbc so watch this space for updates!
A look back at NPW 2025
NPW 2025 ran from 3–9 November. The theme for 2025 was 'Pathology Solutions'. Some of the highlights are below.
RCPath parliamentary event
The RCPath delivered a high-profile event, 'Pathology Solutions' at the House of Commons on 4 November. Dr Simon Opher MP, kindly sponsored this important event. You can find out about the highlights from this event in our news post.
Thank you to our Industry sponsors for this event: Novo Nordisk, Roche Diagnostics and Illumina.
Novo Nordisk, Roche, and Illumina provided sponsorship to the Royal College of Pathologists to support the cost of this meeting. These sponsoring companies had no influence over the meeting agenda or arrangements.
International Pathology Day (IPD)
The RCPath’s IPD virtual conference on 5 November celebrated the vital contributions of pathology professionals around the world. This year’s theme was ‘The global pathology workforce’. You can find out more in the blog post about this event.
Thank you to Diagnexia and the British Society of Haematology for sponsoring this event.
Pathology Alliance online event for students
The College worked in partnership with the Pathology Alliance to deliver an engaging online event called ‘Pathology Solutions: how tests help patients’ on 5 November. The event was chaired by Dr Suzy Lishman CBE and 20 speakers working in a variety of pathology specialties presented short, snappy talks on different pathology tests. You can watch the videos we have created of each talk here.
Ways to get involved next year
Interested in hosting your own event for NPW 2026? Here are some ideas of activities you can run:
- Set up a stall in your hospital or university to showcase what your team does. You can order free RCPath promotional materials here.
- Run a hands-on activity for your local community. Check out our free resources and activity packs here.
- Give a careers talk to your local schools or universities. Have a look at our 'how to' guide for more details.
- Run a lab tour.
Become a pathology ambassador
We've teamed up with STEM Learning to provide our members with the opportunity to sign up to the national STEM ambassador scheme. More information is available in STEM Learning's handbook and leaflet provided below and on our Pathology ambassadors page.