ASCP Enables New Telepathology in Africa

Thanks to a collaborative effort between ASCP, Motic USA and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), Nigeria now has access to telepathology services, improving the speed and accuracy of medical consultations on difficult cancer cases for millions of patients.

This month, the partners completed the installation of two Motic scanners in pathology departments in Nigeria, one at Lagos University Teaching Hospital, in Lagos, Nigeria, and another in Ile-ife Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital Center. 

“I cannot overstate the importance of telepathology to build capacity within our collaborating sites in Nigeria,” said Marcia Edelweiss, MD. MSKCC Global Cancer Disparities Initiatives. “We already have a major project lined up. We have an ongoing early breast cancer diagnosis clinical trial with radiology to build a mobile device US-guided breast biopsy capacity.”

“The project in radiology serves as an important groundwork and an opportunity to build breast cancer early diagnosis capacity in the involved pathology laboratories by establishing a systematic approach to core biopsy histological processing and diagnostic interpretation, to ensure quality in diagnoses and leverage change in clinical practice in Nigeria,” added Dr. Edelweiss, associate attending pathologist at MSKCC. “Specifically for this project, we will digitally scan the breast core biopsy glass slides using the Motic scanners and will have telepathology consensus conference involving all the pathologists participating in the study.”

This Partners for Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment project, led by ASCP and in conjunction with Motic Digital and MSKCC, is likely the most-successful global telepathology program for low- and middle-income countries in history, according to Scott Kilcoyne, of Motic Digital Pathology.

“The program aims to provide world-class diagnostic assistance to underserved communities who previously may have lacked any cancer diagnostic service,” he said. “Now every country can receive the same Anatomic Pathology expertise that first-world nations often take for granted.”

Meanwhile, ASCP’s Partners in Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment initiative has also been working with Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra, Ghana, to secure and install digital pathology equipment at that hospital and train pathologists there to use it.

“We believe this will facilitate timely and more accurate diagnosis especially on difficult cancers,” said Afua Owusua Darkwah Abrahams, head of the pathology department at Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital.

The Korle bu Teaching Hospital is one of the national referral centers in Ghana, and serves the entire southern sector of the country, with patients coming from across the country and even from neighbouring countries for health care services. It is a 2000+ bed capacity facility and recorded as the 3rd largest hospital in Africa south of the Sahara. The Department of Pathology at Korle bu provides pathology services to the hospital, other hospitals and the general public. These services include histopathology services with limited immunohistochemistry for a wide range of diseases. 

“Sometimes, difficult cases require external consultation after all internal consultations are exhausted, and for this, tissue blocks and sometimes slides, both stained and unstained, are sent out to partners abroad for assistance,” Dr. Abrahams explained. “However, this process takes a while and there are limited partners to send such cases to. All this results in delays in making an accurate diagnosis.”