AI now sits beside radiologists reading mammograms across New South Wales — a first for Australia, and now an award winner

When a woman in New South Wales has her regular breast screening, an extra reader now checks her mammogram alongside the radiologist: an AI system used by BreastScreen NSW, the first population-wide screening program in Australia to bring one into everyday reading. The extra check is easing radiologists' workloads and cutting false alarms — those call-backs that turn out to be nothing but leave women anxious while they wait — while shortening wait times. The project, years in the making across the Cancer Institute NSW, eHealth NSW and local health districts, and led by Matthew Warner-Smith and Dr Nalini Bhola with senior radiologists advising, has just won the 2026 Health Innovation Award at the NSW Health Awards.

SDG 3 · Good health and well-being — Mechanism: institutional program