The Clinton Foundation’s HIV/AIDS Initiative and ASCP have become partners in a global project to improve the quality of laboratories in Africa.

On July 27, 2009, in Kigali, Rwanda, government health officials from 13 African countries launched the first-ever push for accreditation of the continent’s medical laboratories. This new effort will operate under the guidance of the WHO Regional Office for Africa (WHO/AFRO) and the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), implemented through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (HHS/CDC). ASCP will assign dozens of volunteer American lab professionals, and the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative will help implement action-oriented training programs to boost and standardize the quality of African laboratories.

“My Foundation is proud to support WHO-AFRO in this effort, alongside the CDC and the American Society for Clinical Pathology,” President Clinton said in a videotaped statement shown during the public announcement of the new program. “Together we can build a future where laboratories are well managed, provide high quality testing, produce reliable test results, where staff morale is high, money is not wasted, and the standard of patient care bolters the health of our global community.”

Just a handful of Africa’s laboratories are now accredited, in part because the existing international accreditation process is so time-consuming. Many laboratories lack equipment, proper funding, adequate training for lab workers, and systematic management of work. WHO-AFRO has established a 5-step accreditation process structured around its core standards for laboratories, which will allow labs to gradually receive credit for improvement—and eventually attain accreditation. For many laboratories that employ top-notch workers, this extra help is seen as critical to reach a consistent high standard of work.

ASCP's Department of Global Outreach works to improve global health by identifying and implementing innovative methods and partnerships that improve laboratory practices. Quality education, mentorship, and collaboration are at the core of the Global Outreach work, which began in 2005 with a partnership between ASCP and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to provide laboratory training and implement laboratory quality improvement initiatives.

The new program to help Africa’s laboratories achieve accreditation has garnered attention of the global news media, including Voice of America, Nature, and the Kaiser Daily Global Health Report. For comprehensive coverage of ASCP’s latest initiative in Africa, go to the ASCP Newsroom at www.ascp.org/MainMenu/AboutASCP/Newsroom. For more about the ASCP Global Outreach program, go to www.ascp.org/outreach.