ASCP Lends Global Health Expertise to Improve Medical Laboratory Quality in Central America
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
- ASCP member volunteer Jeannette Guarner, MD, FASCP, was in San Salvador, El Salvador, from May 13-16 to conduct a workshop on quality management. ASCP Chief Medical Officer Dan A. Milner Jr., MD, MSc(Epi), FASCP provided a pre-recorded video welcome message in English and Spanish. Hosted by ASPERCAN and sponsored by Roche, Sakura and ASCP, the workshop drew medical laboratory professionals and pathologists from Cuba, Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Panama, Costa Rica and El Salvador. Dr. Guarner was assisted in presenting the program by Zully Osoria and Tamara Restrepo. The workshop covered myriad topics, including personnel, equipment, inventory, documents, safety, quality (internal, external, management), process improvement, audits, accreditation. These modules, provided by the World Health Organization, were translated into Spanish and modified to fit anatomic pathology for the workshop. “ASCP is a global leader when it comes to training of laboratory professionals and pathologists,” says Dr. Guarner, Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Emory University School of Medicine, in Atlanta, GA. “I consider this workshop a crucial component of elevating quality in anatomic pathology. The fact that ASCP has the ability to find volunteers to present the workshop in Spanish is paramount to include and engage people who do not speak English in these activities which are essential for the region.”
- Through a President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) cooperative agreement with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, ASCP continues to provide on-site mentorship for molecular laboratories in Jamaica, Trinidad, Tobago, Guyana, and Mozambique. In Cameroon and the Caribbean region, ASCP is working to train and certify HIV rapid test providers. In Vietnam, ASCP is supporting the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology to scale-up recency testing for HIV surveillance. Finally, in Ukraine, ASCP continues to support laboratory quality with quality control (QC) workshops in Kyiv and Odesa, to be held in June.
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 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.
