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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.
Highlight the role of pathology teams in prevention, diagnosis and treatment. Check out our Facts and Figures page.
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 opporutnity of signing 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. Becoming a STEM Ambassador is a great way to get involved in engaging school age students with pathology.

A look back at previous years:

National Pathology Week 2024

National Pathology Week (NPW) 2024 ran from 4–10 November. Our theme for 2024 was 'Pathology is Vital'.

College-led activities

4 November - Online event: 'Pathology Myths and Misconceptions' - A panel of fascinating speakers for a special webinar explored, and dispelled, some of the most common myths about pathology.
6 November - Our annual conference: International Pathology Day virtual conference - This year the topic was 'The rise of global antimicrobial resistance.'
8 November - Lunctime webinar: 'From Bench to Bedside'. A RCPath collaboration with Roche Diagnostics UK. This free online event explored how greater collaboration between industry and academia can help accelerate frontline use of new diagnostic technologies. Watch the recording of this event here.

Pathology Alliance

We delivered NPW in collaboration with other members of the Pathology Alliance – the organisations who are part of the Alliance are listed below.

National Pathology Week 2023

NPW 2023 ran from 19–25 June. Our theme for 2023 was 'Pathologists and Patients'.

We highlighted the essential work pathologists and clinical scientists do to help patients and supported members and their teams to do the same around the UK.

College-led activities:

Our NPW Twitter competition challenged members and their teams to tweet a photo or video that summed up our theme
19 June - RCPath Book Club featuring 'Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything'
21 June - Virtual Pathology Pub Quiz for Undergraduates
22 June - Art of Pathology Exhibition at the Annual Dinner drinks reception
23 June - Virtual Veterinary Pathology Pub Quiz for Undergraduates (on Instagram)
24 June - Discovering Cells art-science workshop with Dr Lizzie Burns and histopathologist, Dr Stephanie Edwards.

National Pathology Week 2022

NPW 2022 ran from 20–26 June. The theme was 'Pathology: past, present and future'.

We moved the celebrations from November to June as part of the College's Diamond Jubilee.