Support the critically ill

Our pathologists and scientists are experts in diagnosing and supporting patients with the most complex and life-threatening conditions. This includes patients in our public hospital emergency departments and intensive care units. 

The expertise of our staff is leading to better and more personalised care when patients need it most.

Highlights

• Our Newcastle laboratory was the first in Australia to be nationally accredited to use its next generation sequencing technology to screen for mutations in BRCA 1, BRCA 2 and PALB2 genes, which can signal an increased risk of breast or ovarian cancer. With the new technology, the team has vastly increased the number of genes it can analyse and the number of samples it can process at any one time.

• We operate the largest and busiest stem cell processing laboratory in NSW specialising in blood and marrow transplant procedures.

• We manage the World Health Organisation National Influenza Centre, as well as the state referral centre for communicable diseases such as tuberculosis, pneumococcal disease, influenza, arboviruses and other emerging infections.

• Our staff partner with cancer specialists at hospitals and research centres across Australia, including the Chris O’Brien Lifehouse, the Kathleen Cunningham Consortium for Familial Breast Cancer, the Australian Ovarian Cancer Study, the Australian Breast Cancer Tissue Bank and many more.

• We’ve partnered with the Royal Flying Doctor Service, NSW Ambulance and the Western NSW Local Health District to enable in-flight blood transfusions for the critically ill.

• We provide 24-hour-a-day, 7-day-a-week laboratory support for patients with severe bleeding disorders such as haemophilia.

• Our innovative staff pioneered a method to help diagnose cystic fibrosis.