Dr Patricia (Trish) Symons is a perinatal pathologist and staff specialist in Anatomical Pathology at NSW Health Pathology’s Liverpool laboratory. Each day Trish and her colleagues play a crucial role in supporting the care of mothers and babies across the growing south-west Sydney region.

Peri­na­tal pathol­o­gy focus­es on the exam­i­na­tion of the pla­cen­ta and the peri­od sur­round­ing birth.

Since being giv­en the oppor­tu­ni­ty to for­mal­ly report pla­cen­tas in 2018, Dr Trish Symons has devel­oped a strong pas­sion for pla­cen­tal pathol­o­gy, with par­tic­u­lar inter­ests in obstet­ric hys­terec­tomies and Pla­cen­ta Acc­re­ta Spec­trum Disorders.

Her work sup­ports clin­i­cians by pro­vid­ing valu­able insights into preg­nan­cy complications.

Dr Symons and her team based at Liv­er­pool Hos­pi­tal exam­ine large num­bers of pla­cen­tas each year, many from babies requir­ing care in neona­tal inten­sive care units or spe­cial care nurseries.

“Most of our babies are in the NICU or spe­cial care nurs­ery, and the pla­cen­ta can give clin­i­cians impor­tant insights into what’s been hap­pen­ing dur­ing the pregnancy.”

Giving back through research and teaching

Along­side her diag­nos­tic work, teach­ing is a big part of Dr Symons’ role.

Work­ing with­in a large pub­lic teach­ing hos­pi­tal allows her to super­vise and edu­cate reg­is­trars, con­tribute to case based learn­ing, and sup­port inter­dis­ci­pli­nary collaboration.

She has writ­ten guide­lines and pro­to­cols for her depart­ment and reg­u­lar­ly presents at clin­i­cal case review meetings.

“Teach­ing is such a sig­nif­i­cant aspect of a big pub­lic hos­pi­tal like Liv­er­pool and I don’t think it’s recog­nised enough,” she said.

“That teach­ing abil­i­ty is one of the things that sets us apart.”

Dr Symons is also involved in pla­cen­tal pathol­o­gy research. She is cur­rent­ly part of a col­lab­o­ra­tive research project with UNSW, where she holds a posi­tion as Con­joint Lec­tur­er. While pla­cen­tal pathol­o­gy has been the sub­ject of exten­sive research over many years, she says there are still unan­swered questions.

“Pla­cen­tal pathol­o­gy has had a lot of research over the years, but it hasn’t nec­es­sar­i­ly trans­lat­ed into what we real­ly need to report day to day,” she says.

“The pla­cen­ta can tell an impor­tant sto­ry about what’s hap­pen­ing dur­ing a preg­nan­cy. There’s still a lot we’re try­ing to understand.”

The importance of partnering

Her com­mit­ment to ongo­ing learn­ing and pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ment was recog­nised recent­ly when she received a pres­ti­gious Roy­al Col­lege of Pathol­o­gists of Aus­trala­sia (RCPA) award, which allowed her to spend two weeks at The Austin Hos­pi­tal in Melbourne.

Dis­sec­tion sci­en­tist, Tan work­ing in the Anatom­i­cal Pathol­o­gy Depart­ment at The Austin Hos­pi­tal in Melbourne.

Dr Symons says the vis­it rein­forced the impor­tance of col­lab­o­ra­tion, teach­ing and expert con­sul­ta­tion when man­ag­ing com­plex peri­na­tal cases.

She plans to bring those insights back to NSW Health Pathol­o­gy by strength­en­ing diag­nos­tic con­sis­ten­cy, shar­ing knowl­edge with col­leagues and sup­port­ing edu­ca­tion and research with­in the Liv­er­pool laboratory.

Dr Symons says one of the most reward­ing aspects of her role is the strong pro­fes­sion­al sup­port net­work across the pub­lic health system.

“If I have a dif­fi­cult case, I can send it to the Children’s Hos­pi­tal and they are fan­tas­tic,” she says. “That con­nect­ed net­work is real­ly important.”

For Dr Symons, it’s the com­bi­na­tion of patient impact, teach­ing, research and col­lab­o­ra­tion that makes her work so rewarding.

“The abil­i­ty to do research in con­junc­tion with uni­ver­si­ties and to teach at the same time is a real­ly impor­tant part of being a pub­lic teach­ing hospital.”

Through her exper­tise and com­mit­ment to research and learn­ing, Dr Trish Symons con­tin­ues to make a mean­ing­ful con­tri­bu­tion to patient care and the future of peri­na­tal pathol­o­gy in NSW.

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