Congratulations to Dr Poomahal Kumar from our Royal North Shore Laboratory, who has been awarded the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia (RCPA) 2025 Konrad Muller Outstanding Teaching Award.

Dr Kumar is a Senior Staff Spe­cial­ist (Lab­o­ra­to­ry Haema­tol­o­gist) at our Roy­al North Shore Lab­o­ra­to­ry, Coor­di­na­tor of the NSW/ACT Haema­tol­ogy Teach­ing Pro­gram and Senior Clin­i­cal Lec­tur­er, Uni­ver­si­ty of Sydney.

Dr Kumar is well-deserv­ing of this award and it’s won­der­ful to see her recog­nised for out­stand­ing con­tri­bu­tion and lead­er­ship in the teach­ing, men­tor­ing and train­ing of reg­is­trars in Haema­tol­ogy over 25 years.

This pres­ti­gious hon­our recog­nis­es out­stand­ing indi­vid­u­als who have made an excep­tion­al con­tri­bu­tion to pathol­o­gy edu­ca­tion, par­tic­u­lar­ly in sup­port­ing and inspir­ing the next gen­er­a­tion of registrars.

Dr Kumar received the acco­lade at the Fel­low­ship and Awards cer­e­mo­ny held dur­ing the annu­al Roy­al Col­lege of Pathol­o­gists of Australasia’s Pathol­o­gy Update in Syd­ney in March 2026.

Dr Kumar was cho­sen for her lead­er­ship in haematopathol­o­gy edu­ca­tion, includ­ing the devel­op­ment of the NSW/ACT Haema­tol­ogy teach­ing pro­gram through the RCPA, and her ded­i­ca­tion in pro­vid­ing edu­ca­tion, men­tor­ship and train­ing of reg­is­trars and inter­na­tion­al grad­u­ates and edu­ca­tion for med­ical stu­dents and med­ical scientists.

Dr Kumar has been a long-stand­ing exam­in­er for the RCPA for 10 years and her knowl­edge and exper­tise are much val­ued by reg­is­trars for­tu­nate enough to have been taught by her.

Dr Les­ley Survela, Direc­tor of NSW Health Pathology’s Haema­tol­ogy Lab­o­ra­to­ry, at Roy­al North Shore Hos­pi­tal said Dr Kumar has made out­stand­ing con­tri­bu­tions to the Depart­ment of Haema­tol­ogy over the past 25 years.

“She is a trust­ed and ded­i­cat­ed expert edu­ca­tor, super­vi­sor and men­tor and as her col­leagues, we wit­ness her exper­tise and pas­sion play­out every day in our laboratory”.

“We are so grate­ful that her ded­i­ca­tion and hard work have been recog­nised by the RCPA with this much deserved award,” Dr Survela said.

Teach­ing, edu­ca­tion and men­tor­ship rep­re­sents an essen­tial and impor­tant invest­ment in devel­op­ing exper­tise and help­ing shape the careers of clin­i­cians and sci­en­tists in our laboratories.

“Ulti­mate­ly, this is essen­tial for the ongo­ing deliv­ery of high-qual­i­ty diag­nos­tic ser­vices to the com­mu­ni­ty we serve, and Dr Kumar has made an out­stand­ing career long con­tri­bu­tion in this area,” Dr Survela said.

Dr Kumar said it was an hon­our to be recognised.

“It’s a priv­i­lege to help con­tribute to the learn­ing and devel­op­ment of haema­tol­ogy trainees across our lab­o­ra­to­ries, includ­ing inter­na­tion­al trainees, med­ical sci­en­tists and med­ical stu­dents,” Dr Kumar said.

“Over many years I have devel­oped, expand­ed and coor­di­nat­ed the NSW/ ACT Haema­tol­ogy Teach­ing pro­gram. The train­ing is deliv­ered in per­son and as well as vir­tu­al­ly to trainees across Aus­tralia, New Zealand and South East Asia, and has been adopt­ed by RCPA,” D Kumar said.

“I also teach mor­phol­o­gy to the RNSH reg­is­trars and many med­ical sci­en­tists from NSW lab­o­ra­to­ries dial in via MS Teams every week for 1–2 hours. It’s great that we can reach so many peo­ple, regard­less of their loca­tion,” Dr Kumar said.

Dr Kumar said her com­mit­ment to edu­ca­tion began ear­ly in her career.

“As a final-year trainee, I intro­duced a mock dry prac­ti­cal exam for NSW trainees after expe­ri­enc­ing lim­it­ed resources when I sat the Part 1 FRCPA exam myself,” she said.

“Although I was still devel­op­ing my own exper­tise at the time, I was moti­vat­ed to sup­port oth­er trainees. I began curat­ing and deliv­er­ing the dry prac­ti­cal mock exam under exam con­di­tions each year, which quick­ly gained strong inter­est, includ­ing from can­di­dates trav­el­ling from New Zealand.”

Fol­low­ing the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic, Dr Kumar worked with the RCPA to deliv­er the mock exam online, expand­ing access to can­di­dates across Aus­tralia and internationally.

“This mod­el has since been adopt­ed more broad­ly, improv­ing access to exam prepa­ra­tion and sup­port­ing trainees across mul­ti­ple regions,” she said.

How has your teach­ing improved health care to patients?
“I strong­ly believe that edu­ca­tion direct­ly improves the qual­i­ty of health­care. By sup­port­ing trainees, med­ical sci­en­tists and stu­dents to build their knowl­edge, con­fi­dence and skills, we strength­en the qual­i­ty of the work we pro­duce and, ulti­mate­ly, patient care.

Near­ly 70 per cent of med­ical deci­sions rely on pathol­o­gy, so it is essen­tial that we invest in devel­op­ing high­ly skilled pathol­o­gists and sci­en­tists. Edu­ca­tion, ded­i­ca­tion and team­work are key to achiev­ing this.”

How impor­tant is teach­ing and mentoring?
“Train­ing to become a pathol­o­gist is demand­ing the exams are exten­sive and requires sus­tained effort over many years. As teach­ers and men­tors, it is our respon­si­bil­i­ty to sup­port trainees to achieve their goals and become capa­ble pathol­o­gists and clinicians.

My phi­los­o­phy is sim­ple, ‘if you don’t invest in teach­ing, men­tor­ing and edu­cat­ing the junior doc­tors and sci­en­tists, you can­not expect strong performance”’.

Is there any­one you would like to thank or acknowledge?
“I would like to thank my reg­is­trars over the years, who moti­vat­ed me and gave me the strength and pas­sion to con­tin­ue with my teach­ing and sup­port­ed this nom­i­na­tion. I also want to thank Dr Les­ley Survela and my col­leagues at RNSH, the lab­o­ra­to­ry and clin­i­cal haema­tol­o­gists and sci­en­tists who are very sup­port­ive of my efforts.

I want to thank the RCPA for recog­nis­ing my teach­ing efforts and pre­sent­ing this pres­ti­gious award and for their admin­is­tra­tive sup­port. Also, I want to thank my fel­low tutors of the NSW/ACT Teach­ing pro­gram and the RCPA Edu­ca­tion Advi­sor ‑Lead, for their con­tin­ued involve­ment and support”.

What changes have you seen in your pro­fes­sion over time?
“We con­tin­ue to face chal­lenges in attract­ing junior doc­tors and sci­en­tists into pathol­o­gy. part­ly due to lim­it­ed vis­i­bil­i­ty with­in main­stream medicine.

At the same time, there have been sig­nif­i­cant advances in tech­nol­o­gy, includ­ing dig­i­tal mor­phol­o­gy, online learn­ing, vir­tu­al work­shops and con­fer­ences, and even vir­tu­al exam­i­na­tions. These inno­va­tions have improved acces­si­bil­i­ty, broad­ened par­tic­i­pa­tion and reduced trav­el barriers.

How­ev­er, they can also reduce oppor­tu­ni­ties for in-per­son con­nec­tion and pro­fes­sion­al net­work­ing, which remain an impor­tant part of train­ing and development.”

Con­grat­u­la­tions, Dr Kumar, on this well-deserved achieve­ment and thank you for your out­stand­ing con­tri­bu­tion to teach­ing, men­tor­ship and excel­lence in pathology!

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