Even the most advanced automated haematology analysers at times cannot provide some helpful and actionable clinical information that will have an impact on patient care and would otherwise not be detected if morphological evaluation of a blood smear is not performed. In this session we will review a basic approach to examination of the blood smear in a systematic way, and discuss the most common pathological changes that can be detected and that can have clinical impact on patient care.

Learning outcomes:

• Identify a good quality blood smear
• Adopt a systematic approach to blood smear review, briefly reviewing the normal findings in healthy patients
• Evaluate and interpret common pathological changes that have clinical impact on patient care and can be readily identified on blood smear evaluation