Our Forensic Medicine (FM) service conducts around 6,000 coronial post-mortem examinations for the NSW Coroner each year to investigate unexplained or unexpected deaths. These examinations are carried out by specialist teams, including forensic pathologists and forensic mortuary technicians, at three dedicated FM facilities in Lidcombe, Newcastle and Wollongong.
FM teams had previously been working with three separate dated systems and largely paper-based workflows to manage each case. Police referrals and coronial directions also had to be faxed or emailed.
FM identified the opportunity to build and implement a new integrated digital information management system that would be the first of its kind in Australia. Work to design and implement the system is a significant program of change for the FM workforce and for some external stakeholders.
While the Forensic Medicine Information System is still being implemented and refined, the system aims to deliver improved time-frames, full integration of case records, enhanced traceability of case data, and better experiences for our FM workforce, bereaved families and stakeholders.