ASCP Center for Global Health Update for October 2019

Publication Date: Oct 23, 2019

Below are highlights of the past month’s achievements. If you have any questions, please contact Dan A. Milner, Jr., MD, MSc(Epi), FASCP, ASCP Chief Medical Officer, dan.milner@ascp.org.

Updates

In coordination with BVGH, ASCP donated a manual microtome to the CHU Treichville Pathology Lab in Cote d’Ivoire. CHU Treichville is one of two anatomic pathology labs in the entire country, responsible for diagnosing almost 2,000 cancer patients every year. This is a continuation of the BVGH-ASCP partnership with Ivorian pathologists to improve cancer diagnosis, featured in a recent Blog Post: https://spark.adobe.com/page/a9EwPrPX3Qk24/. This donation was part of a larger donation of three manual and three semi-automated microtomes donated by a pathology colleague, Dr. David Dorward. With Dr. Dorward’s assistance, ASCP coordinated a multi-site donation from the Pathology Department of the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh to pathology labs in Liberia, Uganda, Rwanda, Cote d’Ivoire, and Guyana.
ASCP's Center for Global Health (CGH) has received a $75,000 grant from Bristol-Myer-Squibb to expand its medical laboratory services in an effort to improve cancer diagnoses in low- and middle-income countries in Africa, South America, Southeast Asia and parts of Eastern Europe. The funding will support several CGH priorities for 2019-2020, including:

-- Expanding in-person expert consultations in concert with providing or improving
pathology services to increase ASCP’s impact from 48 million people to 200
million;

-- Creating a “Laboratory Boot Camp” program, pairing laboratory professionals with
selected field sites to provide one-week, intensive training on specific topics; and,

-- Developing, with several partners, a self-sustaining, external quality assurance
program for cancer diagnostics in Africa through shared resources.

The Center for Global Health co-sponsored a session titled, “Culturally-appropriate Leadership Training: Pathways to Improve Patient Care and Female Empowerment,” during the ASCP 2019 Annual Meeting in Phoenix, Arizona. The session addressed culturally-appropriate leadership training and how to adapt behaviors to specific cultural needs, with a specific focus on how global female empowerment improves patient care. Melissa P. Upton, MD, FASCP, ASCP 2018-2019 President, moderated the session, which included ASCP President-elect Kimberly Sanford, MD, MASCP; Edda Vuhahula, DDS (Dar), PhD; Filipinas Papa, MS, and Lotte Mulder, MEd. The panel also included female participants of the ASCP Leadership Institute representing Africa, the Middle East, Asia and the United States. Following the presentations, ASCP Chief Medical Officer Dan A. Milner, Jr., MD, MSc(Epi), FASCP, moderated a discussion focusing on leadership and improving patient care, as well as female empowerment for medical personnel and patients.

Volunteers

Mount Sinai Hospital, in cooperation with Pathologists Overseas/ASCP, is currently recruiting volunteer histotechnologists to visit Liberia and assist with early stage epidemiological and diagnostic programs of training and service.
The Partners for Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment in Africa project is looking for foreign language speakers in Spanish, Burmese, Georgian, and Portuguese, as well as members with experience in lab design and implementation to serve on the advisory committee for C/Can 2025: City Cancer Challenge.
Opportunities are also emerging for ASCP members to lead country teams and assist with critical functions such as case assignment and team communications. New teams are forming for Uganda, eSwatini, and Ghana! If this is of interest, please contact ASCP Chief Medical Officer Dan A. Milner, Jr., MD, MSc(Epi), FASCP, at dan.milner@ascp.org.

Meetings

Beginning in mid-October, ASCP CEO E. Blair Holladay, PhD, MASCP, SCT(ASCP)^CM, traveled to Beijing, China, to meet with leaders of KingMed, the nation’s largest independent laboratory where ASCP has an agreement to provide educational products to advance the professional skills of its employees and help promote innovative science. From China, he headed to the World Cancer Leaders’ Summit meeting hosted by the Kazakh Institute of Oncology and Radiology in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan. Approximately 350 global influencers and leaders in cancer control and public health from across governments, UN agencies, academia, non-profit organizations and private sectors convened to consider the ways in which cancer detection, treatment and care contribute to the achievement of Universal Health Coverage. From there, he traveled to Italy to meet with leaders of the Italian Society of Pathology about the country’s needs for pathology and laboratory medicine.
ASCP Chief Medical Officer Dan A. Milner, Jr., MD, MSc(Epi), FASCP, presented a session, Diagnostic Pathology, Stratified Healthcare and Innovation: Where Do We Go Next in Global Health? on October 15 at the University of Virginia. His session addressed the following:

-- The challenges of “tiered services” for diagnostic pathology in global health;

-- The pathology value chain, sources of delay, and solutions; and,

-- How technological innovations can change the diagnostic landscape in low
resourced settings.

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