The statewide rollout of Digital Haematology Morphology technology is nearing completion and marks a significant milestone in the modernisation of laboratory services across NSW Health Pathology.

This tech­nol­o­gy is mod­ernising blood film analy­sis across met­ro­pol­i­tan, region­al and rur­al lab­o­ra­to­ries for con­di­tions like leukaemia and oth­er blood can­cers, reduc­ing turn­around times and improv­ing patient safety.

Project Man­ag­er Mandy Hub­bard said this pro­gram is trans­form­ing how blood films are reviewed and how quick­ly patients receive care.

“The ini­tia­tive has suc­cess­ful­ly intro­duced dig­i­tal mor­phol­o­gy capa­bil­i­ties at scale, enabling lab­o­ra­to­ry teams to access cas­es remote­ly, col­lab­o­rate more effec­tive­ly and reduce reliance on phys­i­cal slide han­dling. This is par­tic­u­lar­ly ben­e­fi­cial for region­al and small­er lab­o­ra­to­ries, where access to spe­cial­ist exper­tise can now be achieved more effi­cient­ly,” Mandy said.

“Since its com­mence­ment in April 2025, the pro­gram has expand­ed to 41 sites, includ­ing nine report­ing-only locations.

“To sup­port this roll­out, 33 analy­sers have been installed and more than 200 staff trained in the new systems.”

The first sites, Tam­worth and Port Mac­quar­ie, went live in Feb­ru­ary 2026, and the final site, Bankstown, was com­plet­ed in mid-August 2026.

The impact of dig­i­tal mor­phol­o­gy is already evi­dent, with up to a 15 hour improve­ment in turn­around times at some sites mea­sur­able improve­ments in turn­around times record­ed across mul­ti­ple sites in NSW.

Supporting staff through change

Feed­back from lab­o­ra­to­ry staff high­lights a strong shift from ini­tial hes­i­ta­tion to con­fi­dent­ly adopt­ing the new technology.

“I will be hon­est and say that I was hes­i­tant when we were all talk­ing about it for the last cou­ple of years. But now that we have gone live, I am lov­ing it… Mor­phol­o­gy and Micro would always be the last bas­tions for automa­tion, but here we are!” – Lyn­da, Tam­worth Lab­o­ra­to­ry, Hos­pi­tal Scientist.

“Once you get the hang of it, it’s real­ly easy to use and quick­er.” – Suzanne, Wag­ga Wag­ga, Senior Scientist.

“It con­firmed a pre­vi­ous­ly undi­ag­nosed case of G6PD defi­cien­cy and ensured a patient with acute leukaemia was diag­nosed and trans­ferred to a Syd­ney hos­pi­tal the same day for treat­ment,” - Ali­son, Kempsey Lab Manager.

These expe­ri­ences reflect broad­er feed­back across sites, where staff are report­ing improved effi­cien­cy, eas­i­er access to cas­es and reduced time spent man­u­al­ly locat­ing slides.

Con­grat­u­la­tions to every­one who has been involved. This mile­stone sets a strong foun­da­tion for con­tin­ued inno­va­tion, deliv­er­ing faster, more con­sis­tent and more con­nect­ed pathol­o­gy ser­vices for com­mu­ni­ties across NSW, and deliv­er­ing care clos­er to home, espe­cial­ly for region­al and remote patients.

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