Closing the Gap

Closing the Gap

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The contribution of NSW Health Pathology to medical research: the first 10 years

The contribution of NSW Health Pathology to medical research: the first 10 years

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Leading researcher at NSW Health Pathology Prof Emmanuel Favaloro has published an article in the Australian Journal of Medical Science outlining the substantial contribution of the organisation to medical research since its establishment in 2012.

Med­ical research is inte­gral to improv­ing diag­no­sis and treat­ment of dis­ease and as the largest pub­licly fund­ed pathol­o­gy organ­i­sa­tion in Aus­tralia, NSW Health Pathol­o­gy also under­takes sig­nif­i­cant research relat­ed activities.

Until now there has been no for­mal broad analy­sis of these research activ­i­ties since the statewide organ­i­sa­tion was cre­at­ed in 2012.

NSW Health Pathology’s Lead Sci­en­tist in haemosta­sis research, locat­ed at the Depart­ment of Haema­tol­ogy at the Insti­tute of Clin­i­cal Pathol­o­gy and Med­ical Research, Prof Emmanuel Faval­oro, who has just been named in the 2025 Top 250 Researchers list for The Aus­tralian Mag­a­zine for Haema­tol­ogy, has recent­ly con­duct­ed a detailed analy­sis of med­ical research out­put from researchers cit­ing an affil­i­a­tion with NSW Health Pathology.

His analy­sis iden­ti­fied a total of 2345 pub­li­ca­tions cit­ing at least one affil­i­a­tion as NSW Health Pathology.

He found the year­ly pub­li­ca­tion rate of NSW Health Pathol­o­gy researchers has grown expo­nen­tial­ly since 2012, when there were two pub­li­ca­tions cit­ed, fol­lowed by four and anoth­er nine pub­li­ca­tions respec­tive­ly in the next two years.

In the four years from 2020 to 2023, NSWHP affil­i­at­ed researchers pub­lished more than 400 PubMed list­ed papers each year.

“The pub­li­ca­tions appear in a wide range of jour­nals, the most pop­u­lar was per­haps unsur­pris­ing­ly, ‘Pathol­o­gy’ (link: https://www.pathologyjournal.rcpa.edu.au/ ),” Prof Faval­oro said.

Forty-six NSWHP affil­i­at­ed researchers pub­lished in excess of 20 papers each year over the 10 year time­frame, with the lead author pub­lish­ing near­ly 250 pub­li­ca­tions over this time.

A chart showing a rapid increase in publications over time.
Pub­li­ca­tions ascribed to authors cit­ing a NSW Health Pathol­o­gy affil­i­a­tion and extract­ed from the PubMed data­base as pub­lished over the years 2012 to 2023 inclusive.

The research also looked at the geo­graph­ic work­site loca­tion of authors and cat­e­gorised the pub­li­ca­tions and authors by Clin­i­cal Stream or Service.

NSWHP researchers based at West­mead Hos­pi­tal, Prince of Wales Hos­pi­tal, Roy­al Prince Alfred, Roy­al North Shore Hos­pi­tal and Newcastle’s John Hunter Hos­pi­tal were the most pro­lif­ic pub­lish­ers of research papers.

Ten ‘ser­vice streams’ con­tributed author­ships in excess of 60 each over the data cap­ture peri­od, with Micro­bi­ol­o­gy, Anatom­i­cal Pathol­o­gy and Haema­tol­ogy the lead­ing research areas.

A column graph showing the highest publications were in Microbiology, followed by Anatomical Pathology, Haematology and Genomics.
Publications/authors accord­ing to Clin­i­cal Stream or oth­er NSW Health Pathol­o­gy Ser­vice (where >60 publications/ authors listed).

“To my knowl­edge, this is the most com­pre­hen­sive analy­sis of pub­li­ca­tions aris­ing from researchers cit­ing a NSWHP affil­i­a­tion,” Prof Faval­oro said.

“It high­lights a broad spread of pub­li­ca­tions aris­ing from sev­er­al loca­tions and ser­vice streams of NSWHP,” Prof Faval­oro said.

“I’m proud to work at an organ­i­sa­tion mak­ing such a sig­nif­i­cant con­tri­bu­tion to med­ical research and the fur­ther­ing of knowl­edge in these diverse fields of study.”

A man standing at a podium giving a speech.
Lead­ing Haema­tol­ogy researcher Prof Emmanuel Favaloro.

 

Jobs taskforce hears inspirational stories from NSW Health Pathology

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NSW Health Pathology’s People and Culture leaders attended a recent jobs and skills event in Sydney, sharing some of our employment success stories with the Hon Murray Watt, Federal Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations.

Our Peo­ple and Cul­ture Act­ing Direc­tor Jes­si­ca Lee pre­sent­ed at the Joint Syd­ney Wide Task­force event in Decem­ber 2024.

“It was such an hon­our to be able to share with the Min­is­ter for Employ­ment and Work­place Rela­tions Mur­ray Watt some of the fan­tas­tic suc­cess sto­ries we have had here at NSW Health Pathol­o­gy,” Jes­si­ca said.

Jes­si­ca spoke about the inspir­ing sto­ry of Asraa Al Saa­di who she met at a Task­force event and who went on to secure her dream job with NSW Health Pathol­o­gy.

“Asraa’s expe­ri­ence is a great exam­ple of how job oppor­tu­ni­ties can trans­form lives, and as Australia’a largest pub­lic pathol­o­gy provider we know our staff make a pos­i­tive dif­fer­ence every day in the lives of the com­mu­ni­ties they serve.”

A woman stands at a podium giving a speech, with a photo of a health worker on a screen in the background.
Jes­si­ca Lee giv­ing a pre­sen­ta­tion at the Joint Syd­ney Wide Task­force event in Decem­ber 2024.

Act­ing Chief Exec­u­tive, Dr Dean­na Paulin, and Jes­si­ca were for­tu­nate to hear many inspir­ing sto­ries from par­tic­i­pants at the event who have over­come numer­ous obsta­cles to secure employ­ment, what it meant for them and their fam­i­lies in pro­grams run by the Taskforce.

“The Joint Syd­ney Wide Task­force pro­vides vital job oppor­tu­ni­ties to diverse com­mu­ni­ties, and we were excit­ed to hear the Min­is­ter con­firm fund­ing for the Local Jobs pro­gram would be extend­ed for an addi­tion­al 2 years!” Dean­na said.

“We are proud to be part of events like these and excit­ed to see how they can help our work­force bet­ter reflect the com­mu­ni­ties we serve every day.”

A group of smiling people at a conference.
Atten­dees at the Joint Syd­ney Wide Task­force event.

Melanoma researcher Dr Rawson takes out Rising Star PhD Candidate Award

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Congratulations to Dr Robert Rawson, winner of the 2024 Rising Star PhD Candidate Award which was announced at the recent NSW Premier’s Awards for Outstanding Cancer Research.

Dr Raw­son works for NSW Health Pathol­o­gy in Syd­ney as a Tis­sue Pathol­o­gy Staff Spe­cial­ist at Melanoma Insti­tute Aus­tralia and Roy­al Prince Alfred Hospital.

Regard­ed as a glob­al expert in this area of melanoma, his work is shap­ing the future of melanoma treat­ment and help­ing clin­i­cians deliv­er patients the most appro­pri­ate care for their cancer.

Dr Raw­son is com­plet­ing his PhD as a part-time stu­dent whilst hold­ing a full-time posi­tion as a Senior Staff Spe­cial­ist pathologist.

“The focus of my research project con­duct­ed as part of my post­grad­u­ate stud­ies is to accu­rate­ly deter­mine the patho­log­i­cal response to neoad­ju­vant immunother­a­py for pri­ma­ry and metasta­t­ic melanoma,” Dr Raw­son said.

“This work allows clin­i­cians to either deesca­late or change ther­a­py depend­ing on the type and degree of response to the treat­ment admin­is­tered and pro­vides a more per­son­alised can­cer treat­ment plan for patients, with the aim to deliv­er the most appro­pri­ate care for bet­ter health outcomes”.

Dr Raw­son has co-authored numer­ous peer-reviewed pub­li­ca­tions and fre­quent­ly presents at local and inter­na­tion­al meet­ings. He has an impres­sive track record of research for his stage of career, with more than 50 pub­li­ca­tions of orig­i­nal research to date.

Winners of the 2025 NSW Premier's Award for Cancer Research
Win­ners of the 2025 NSW Pre­mier’s Award for Can­cer Research.

Dr Laveniya Sat­gu­nasee­lan, Staff Spe­cial­ist Neu­ropathol­o­gist at Roy­al Prince Alfred Hos­pi­tal was also a final­ist in the PhD Ris­ing Star cat­e­go­ry and is super­vised by Pro­fes­sor Ruta Gup­ta, Direc­tor of NSW Health Pathology’s Tis­sue Pathol­o­gy and Diag­nos­tic Oncol­o­gy Depart­ment at RPA Hospital.

Dr Satgunaseelan’s the­sis focus­es on genom­ic dri­vers of oral squa­mous cell car­ci­no­ma in young patients.

The Ris­ing Star PhD Can­di­date Award hon­ours an excep­tion­al PhD Can­di­date who is mak­ing sig­nif­i­cant progress in their research and show­ing the poten­tial to make an impact in any field of can­cer research.

You can see the full list of award win­ners here. Also attend­ing the pres­ti­gious event was NSW Health Pathology’s Prof Richard Scoly­er, who was invit­ed to present the awards as a Co-Aus­tralian of the Year, along with Prof Georgina Long.

Con­grat­u­la­tions Dr Raw­son and Dr Sat­gu­nasee­lan on this incred­i­ble achievement.

We’re proud to see you both recog­nised for your inno­v­a­tive can­cer research.

Mark Dean calls time after a remarkable career in haematology and transfusion

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Transfusion Clinical Stream Lead Assoc Prof Mark Dean will walk out the doors of the Gosford Hospital Laboratory for the last time this month after a career that started in 1986 as an intern at Westmead Hospital.

Com­ing up as a young doc­tor, a career in pathol­o­gy was nev­er at the front of Mark’s mind.

“As a junior doc­tor, I kept on being rotat­ed through haema­tol­ogy terms. I had nev­er real­ly thought of doing this as a spe­cial­ty but fell in love with car­ing for the patients,” he said.

“It is also a spe­cial­ty where you can then diag­nose the prob­lem. I was lucky to have a rota­tion as a reg­is­trar through the Red Cross, and that start­ed my pas­sion for blood transfusion.”

After work­ing at Con­cord Hos­pi­tal for a few years, Mark decid­ed to pur­sue the pas­sion he devel­oped as an intern and joined the NSW Red Cross Blood Trans­fu­sion Ser­vice as the Assis­tant Direc­tor – a posi­tion he held for the next 8 years.

In 2001, Mark made a move to the pathol­o­gy lab­o­ra­to­ry at Gos­ford Hos­pi­tal where he would spend the rest of his career. He embraced numer­ous lead­er­ship posi­tions dur­ing this time from Lab­o­ra­to­ry Direc­tor for Cen­tral Coast to chair­ing the local Blood Trans­fu­sion Com­mit­tee, as well as chair­ing the Pathol­o­gy North Trans­fu­sion and Haema­tol­ogy Dis­ci­pline Advi­so­ry Committee.

For the past 10 years, Mark has been the Trans­fu­sion Clin­i­cal Stream lead play­ing a vital role in devel­op­ing stan­dard­ised trans­fu­sion labs through­out the ear­ly years of NSW Health Pathol­o­gy and beyond.

“I am very proud that we now have agreed NSW Health Pathol­o­gy pro­ce­dures and poli­cies in place that cov­er the vast major­i­ty of our work,” he said.

Look­ing back on his career, Mark’s most ful­fill­ing expe­ri­ences were work­ing with staff at NSW Health Pathol­o­gy who were ded­i­cat­ed to cre­at­ing and main­tain­ing a high-qual­i­ty ser­vice for patients through­out NSW.

“I think some of the most reward­ing high­lights recent­ly have been see­ing the com­mit­ment of our trans­fu­sion staff in com­ing togeth­er so we can pro­vide the best pos­si­ble trans­fu­sion ser­vice for our patients.

“It is so good to see this involve­ment, espe­cial­ly as we move to the imple­men­ta­tion of our statewide lab­o­ra­to­ry infor­ma­tion system.”

As for retire­ment plans, Mark is most excit­ed at the prospect of get­ting to spend more time with his fam­i­ly and grand­chil­dren, as well as pur­su­ing his oth­er pas­sion of land­scape and drone pho­tog­ra­phy and is hop­ing to start delv­ing into the fas­ci­nat­ing world of astrophotography.

Con­grat­u­la­tions Mark on an incred­i­ble career, you will be missed!

Ticked off: the tiny terror of the bush

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Did you know that a small creature found along the eastern coast of Australia can be deadly? With its bite, it can harm humans and pets, trigger a red-meat allergy, and even spread a life-threatening disease.

Meet Ixodes holo­cy­clus, also known as the Aus­tralian Paral­y­sis Tick.

From Sep­tem­ber to Decem­ber, you’re most like­ly to encounter it in its most dan­ger­ous form.

A female paralysis tick on a leaf.
An adult female paral­y­sis tick.

The paral­y­sis tick is often encoun­tered by peo­ple explor­ing the Aus­tralian bush, espe­cial­ly in moister coastal forests. It has four stages: egg, tiny six-legged lar­vae (known as the ‘seed’ or ‘grass’ tick), eight-legged nymph, and eight-legged adult.

The 1mm-long lar­val stage is most active in autumn, the 2mm nymph in win­ter, and the 4mm adult in spring. Since the adult is larg­er, it pos­es the great­est risk.

When a tick bites, it inserts nee­dle-like mouth­parts and injects ven­om in its sali­va. If left attached, this can lead to paral­y­sis, and in the past, has even caused fatal­i­ties. Repeat­ed bites can lead to severe aller­gic reac­tions, includ­ing life-threat­en­ing anaphylaxis.

Ticks can also trans­mit a com­pound called alpha-gal, which can make you aller­gic to red meat from ani­mals like cows, pigs, and sheep. Symp­toms of this aller­gy can include stom­ach aches, bloat­ing, vom­it­ing, and diarrhea.

Ticks are also known to trans­mit Rick­ettsia, a bac­te­r­i­al organ­ism treat­able with antibi­otics. If you devel­op a fever, rash, or oth­er symp­toms fol­low­ing a tick bite, con­sult your doc­tor immediately.

Small larval ticks on a leaf.
The tiny six-legged lar­vae (known as the ‘seed’ or ‘grass’ tick).

How can you avoid the paralysis tick?

A man sitting in a laboratory
Stephen Doggett in his med­ical ento­mol­o­gy lab­o­ra­to­ry at Westmead.

Stephen Doggett, Direc­tor of Med­ical Ento­mol­o­gy at NSW Health Pathol­o­gy, rec­om­mends avoid­ing tick-prone areas, espe­cial­ly after rain, when ticks are most active.

If you do ven­ture into these areas, apply a repel­lent with DEET, picaridin, or oil of lemon euca­lyp­tus. Fol­low reap­pli­ca­tion instruc­tions and any safe­ty pre­cau­tions. Wear­ing cloth­ing treat­ed with per­me­thrin, which can be done with store-bought kits or pre-treat­ed cloth­ing, adds extra protection.

When you return home, remove cloth­ing, and place into a hot dry­er cycle to kill any ticks that may still be present. Care­ful­ly inspect your­self and your chil­dren for any signs of ticks.

What should you do if you find a tick?

An engorged female tick
An engorged female paral­y­sis tick.

Avoid touch­ing it or pulling it out with tweez­ers, as this can cause it to inject more ven­om (remem­ber, tweez­ers are tick squeez­ers!). Instead, kill the tick while it’s still attached by dab­bing it with a per­me­thrin-based cream or spray­ing it with an ether-based spray used for treat­ing warts, both avail­able over the counter at pharmacies.

If you have a severe aller­gic reac­tion, it’s best to see your GP, who can safe­ly treat the tick and ensure your wellbeing.

Stay tick-safe and enjoy your time in the bush with peace of mind!

Want more infor­ma­tion? Check out the NSW Health website.

NSW Perinatal Postmortem Service hits the road

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We wel­come the chance to share the exper­tise of our spe­cialised statewide ser­vices with col­leagues in rur­al and remote NSW.

Our statewide Peri­na­tal Post­mortem Ser­vice recent­ly hit the road to deliv­er new face-to-face train­ing for the Bro­ken Hill and Dub­bo mater­ni­ty units.

The ser­vice pro­vides com­pas­sion­ate sup­port and answers for fam­i­lies expe­ri­enc­ing the death of a baby short­ly before or after birth.

It helps hun­dreds of NSW fam­i­lies each year from 3 spe­cialised cen­tres at West­mead, Rand­wick and New­cas­tle, which for some, is a long way away at such a dif­fi­cult time.

Recog­nis­ing this, Fiona O’Shannessy, an expert mid­wife from our New­cas­tle ser­vice, is bring­ing face-to-face train­ing to mid­wives, doc­tors, and social work­ers at rur­al and region­al hos­pi­tal mater­ni­ty units.

“It was a valu­able oppor­tu­ni­ty to meet staff and build rela­tion­ships with the clin­i­cians who use our ser­vice,” Fiona said.

“Rur­al hos­pi­tals face dif­fer­ent chal­lenges than met­ro­pol­i­tan cen­tres, not the least of which is the dis­tances fam­i­lies must trav­el to access healthcare.

“When a preg­nan­cy ends in bereave­ment, these dis­tances cre­ate an addi­tion­al bur­den. Know­ing who to reach out to and how we can help dur­ing such chal­leng­ing times is reas­sur­ing for all involved.”

At Bro­ken Hill, Fiona worked with staff to devel­op resources and review pro­ce­dures, includ­ing trans­port to Children’s Hos­pi­tal West­mead. Although it was a busy day at the hos­pi­tal there was a fan­tas­tic turnout for both ses­sions, high­light­ing the com­mit­ment of the staff to ongo­ing learning.

At Dub­bo, Fiona pro­vid­ed edu­ca­tion to a large group of mid­wives empha­sis­ing the impor­tance of col­lab­o­ra­tion in pro­vid­ing the best care. Fiona also had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to meet senior staff, which allowed for fur­ther dis­cus­sions on improv­ing ser­vices. Fur­ther edu­ca­tion is planned via Teams to ensure all staff can ben­e­fit from these edu­ca­tion opportunities.

More vis­its to oth­er areas across NSW are planned for 2025 to improve sup­port for staff and fam­i­lies in rur­al com­mu­ni­ties. These vis­its pave the way for improved con­nec­tions and under­stand­ing with­in the health­care sys­tem of the peri­na­tal postmortem.

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NSW Health Pathology acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of the land across NSW whose cultures and customs have nurtured and continue to nurture this land. We would like to pay our respects to the Elders past, present and emerging, for they hold the memories, the traditions, the culture and hopes of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples across the state.

Aboriginal Workforce Development Closing the Gap

NSW Health Pathology acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of the land across NSW whose cultures and customs have nurtured and continue to nurture this land. We would like to pay our respects to the Elders past, present and emerging, for they hold the memories, the traditions, the culture and hopes of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples across the state.

Aboriginal Workforce Development Closing the Gap
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