Congratulations to our NSW Health Pathology staff that have been named a finalist in the 2024 NSW Health Awards for their extraordinary efforts to improve the NSW public health system.

Now in its 26th year, the NSW Health Awards acknowl­edge the staff and pro­grams of work that con­tribute to the well­be­ing of patients and the community.

NSW Health Sec­re­tary Susan Pearce AM said it is real­ly excit­ing to cel­e­brate the peo­ple and teams who are enrich­ing health in mil­lions of ways every day.

“These awards are a chance to recog­nise our incred­i­ble health­care staff and vol­un­teers, across the pub­lic health sys­tem,” Ms Pearce said. “I con­grat­u­late the final­ists, but I also want to acknowl­edge the work being done across the sys­tem every day, by our teams of doc­tors, nurs­es, mid­wives, allied health and sup­port staff.”

Congratulations to our finalists

A Dig­i­tal Sin­gle Statewide Pathol­o­gy Test Cat­a­logue – Patient Safe­ty First category

The Dig­i­tal Statewide Pathol­o­gy Test Cat­a­logue is a project by NSW Health Pathol­o­gy (NSWHP). The cat­a­logue pro­vides clin­i­cians with time­ly and up to date infor­ma­tion in a dig­i­tal library to ensure the right tests are request­ed at the right time. This leads to informed deci­sion mak­ing and bet­ter patient care and safe­ty. The cat­a­logue is designed to give a statewide overview of pathol­o­gy test­ing ser­vices and advice for clin­i­cal teams, gen­er­al prac­ti­tion­ers, and patients.

NSWHP oper­ates test­ing ser­vices at 62 loca­tions and is sup­port­ed by over 150 col­lec­tion cen­tres, ensur­ing high-qual­i­ty care for patients and the community.

The cat­a­logue was cre­at­ed in-house by project design­ers, in col­lab­o­ra­tion with clin­i­cal and sci­en­tif­ic spe­cial­ists. The large data set includes more than 2,000 tests tai­lored for loca­tion and sci­en­tif­ic spe­cial­i­ty. The plat­form is Acces­si­ble 24/7 via mobile and desk­top devices. The geolo­ca­tion fea­ture deliv­ers per­son­alised guid­ance on test ser­vices, col­lec­tion meth­ods, trans­port, han­dling, billing and patient advice. Strong data gov­er­nance ensures test­ing is con­sis­tent and reli­able across NSW.

The Test Cat­a­logue rep­re­sents a major improve­ment in health­care infor­ma­tion man­age­ment, set­ting a new stan­dard for effi­cien­cy, accu­ra­cy, and bet­ter patient out­comes across NSW’s health system.

NSW Dried Blood Spot Hepati­tis C Val­i­da­tion Study – Health Inno­va­tion category

The NSW Min­istry of Health part­nered with NSW Health Pathol­o­gy and var­i­ous NSW Health part­ners to val­i­date the Dried Blood Spot (DBS) test for diag­nos­ing hepati­tis C (HCV). The val­i­da­tion of the DBS test is the first of its kind in Aus­tralia. This project aims to make DBS test­ing a stan­dard diag­nos­tic tool, and, if suc­cess­ful, it will change how HCV test­ing is offered for peo­ple at risk of HCV.

Over six months, the NSW Min­istry of Health in part­ner­ship with four Local Health Dis­tricts, Jus­tice Health NSW and Clarence Cor­rec­tion­al Cen­tre, col­lect­ed 1286 sam­ples. NSW Health Pathol­o­gy analysed the sam­ples to deter­mine the sen­si­tiv­i­ty and speci­fici­ty of the DBS test and will use the results to apply to the Ther­a­peu­tic Goods Asso­ci­a­tion (TGA) for val­i­da­tion. If approved, this will be the only HCV DBS test avail­able in Aus­tralia. The part­ner­ships between the NSW Health sec­tor have been essen­tial for the largescale val­i­da­tion in a short amount of time.

The DBS test pro­vides access to test­ing for vul­ner­a­ble pop­u­la­tions includ­ing peo­ple in prison and peo­ple with a his­to­ry of inject­ing drugs and will help NSW Health meet its goal of elim­i­nat­ing HCV as a pub­lic health issue by 2028.

Sharon Neville – Staff Mem­ber of the Year category

Sharon Neville has made an excep­tion­al con­tri­bu­tion to the NSW Health and Jus­tice sys­tems. Her work at the Foren­sic and Ana­lyt­i­cal Sci­ence Ser­vice (FASS) makes NSW a safer place.

Sharon’s work of pro­vid­ing the high­est qual­i­ty foren­sic sci­ence; dis­rupts crime, min­imis­es the health impact of illic­it drugs in the com­mu­ni­ty, sup­ports the appre­hen­sion of per­pe­tra­tors, and pro­vides answers for griev­ing fam­i­lies and vic­tims of crime.

Sharon over­sees the Foren­sic Biology/DNA, Illic­it Drug Analy­sis and Chem­i­cal Crim­i­nal­is­tics units. She is com­mit­ted to sup­port­ing and men­tor­ing col­leagues and col­lab­o­rat­ing with key part­ners, includ­ing NSW Police and the Direc­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions. Her exper­tise is relied on by author­i­ties in NSW and sought after by oth­er juris­dic­tions around Aus­tralia and New Zealand.

Her vision is to pro­vide world-class ser­vices, deliv­er­ing high qual­i­ty, reli­able results as quick­ly as pos­si­ble to sup­port police inves­ti­ga­tions and the courts.
She intro­duced advanced DNA capa­bil­i­ties that have ensured the ear­ly iden­ti­fi­ca­tion of offend­ers, and helped police solve numer­ous cold cas­es. She recent­ly led a team of experts to source and install the lat­est DNA robot­ics technology.

Sharon’s lega­cy will be hav­ing trans­formed the FASS Foren­sic Biology/DNA lab into a world-leader.

The win­ners will be announced on Thurs­day 24 Octo­ber 2024. 

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