ASCP: Playing a Pivotal Role

Laboratory programs in developing countries play a pivotal role in the effective implementation of prevention, care, and treatment of HIV and AIDS. Since 2005, ASCP volunteers have traveled to countries such as Ethiopia, Swaziland, and Tanzania to work for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Their efforts have been focused on improving laboratory infrastructure, technology, and training in Africa and other resource-limited countries.

Supported by U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) grants, ASCP volunteers have been working on the front lines, exchanging methods and processes with those who are seeking help to improve their laboratories and produce the best tests and diagnoses for the healthcare team. Training laboratory professionals in these countries will help save lives.

Today, thanks in part to the work of ASCP and our partners, government leaders, and healthcare workers in these countries have a greater understanding of the valuable role that laboratory professionals play in the care and treatment of patients.

ASCP Moves Beyond its Borders to Improve Healthcare Worldwide

Since its founding in 1922, the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP) has evolved and extended its reach for global education and the improvement of patient care. ASCP is a leader in pathology and laboratory medicine in the United States and is unique among pathology organizations because it unites the entire laboratory team—pathologists and laboratory professionals—to advance the profession.

Since 2003 when ASCP formed a partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), thousands of ASCP consultants have traveled to Africa, Asia, eastern Europe, and the Caribbean to train laboratory professionals and provide them with a strategic road map to achieve accreditation for their laboratory services.

By its nature, health care is collaborative and focuses on caring for human beings—wherever they live. ASCP shares its resources—the skills of its members—beyond its borders to improve the diagnosis of diseases, which in turn provides patients with right treatment and results in better outcomes.

ASCP is working to implement a sustainable program of cervical cancer screening, treatment, and prevention in a population that needs it most and serves as a co-sponsor of the development of new evidence-based guidelines for the use of HPV testing in cervical cancer screening.

ASCP seeks to collaborate with other organizations to continue its efforts to improve healthcare throughout the world.

It has more than 100,000 members who are highly skilled, educated, and motivated members of the healthcare team.

THOUSAND

STRONG

100ASCP GLOBAL OUTREACH

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knock out ASCP Global OutreachASCP INSTITUTE FOR SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND POLICY

1 HIV/AIDS Laboratory Network Accra 20-22 Report. Regional Programme on HIV/AIDS, World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa. November 2002.

“The role of laboratories is becoming increasingly important in view of the expansion of programs on prevention of mother- to-child transmission, voluntary testing and counseling, and access to antiretroviral therapy.”

— World Health Organization, 20021

“ASCP’s global outreach is one of the hidden gems of the Society.”

— Ian Lemieux, RN, MPH, BSN, ASCP Institute Advisory Committee

ASCP Global Outreach33 West Monroe Street, Suite 1600Chicago, IL 60603312.541.4999www.ascp.org/outreachglobal.outreach@ascp.org

Botswana

Cambodia

Cote d’Ivoire

Ethiopia

Guyana

Haiti

Kazakhstan

Kenya

Lesotho

Mozambique

Namibia

Nigeria

Rwanda

Sierra Leone

Swaziland

Tajikistan

Tanzania

Ukraine

Vietnam

www.ascp.org/outreach

QUALITY KNOWLEDGECOLLABORATION

PATIENT-CENTERED ORGANIzATION WITHOUT BORDERS

ASCP Global Outreach33 West Monroe Street, Suite 1600Chicago, IL 60603312.541.4999www.ascp.org/outreachglobal.outreach@ascp.org

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ASCP Global OutreachASCP INSTITUTE FOR SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND POLICY

The ASCP staff and consultants who participate in Global Outreach initiatives have learned how to leverage the strengths of each country and to work collaboratively with the stakeholders.

Starting at the ground level by assessing the scope of practice of laboratory professionals in-country—including the tests they perform, instruments, and conditions of their facilities—ASCP consultants work to enhance the laboratory training curriculum. They teach laboratory personnel how to integrate new technology and adopt better quality assurance procedures.

In 2011, ASCP joined seven African Ministries of Health for the launch of the African Society for Laboratory Medicine (ASLM), an organization led by Africans and supported by PEPFAR to advance professional laboratory medicine, practice, science, systems, and networks on the continent.

Working together with our global partners, we represent a strong force in making tangible progress toward raising the standards of laboratory services in these resource-limited countries. Moving forward, there are many more that need our help.

COLLABORATION

COLLABORATION

TANzANIA

The immense need for laboratory workers in Tanzania has led to an incredible effort by the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare to make training laboratory professionals at places like the Singida Medical Laboratory Assistant Training Centre a priority. After working with the Centre for many years to revise curriculum, ASCP Global Outreach purchased laboratory teaching equipment for its student lab.

ASCP: Collaborating Across Cultures

The CDC has repeatedly turned to ASCP as a prime partner that really delivers results to train laboratory professionals and raises the standards of laboratory services in resource-limited countries. ASCP has shown leadership in upgrading laboratories that were many years behind to levels that are acceptable—in only a few years.”

— ASCP Past President Lee H. Hilborne, MD, MPH, FASCP, FCAP, DLM(ASCP)CM

Over the years, ASCP consultants have traveled to countries in Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean, training laboratory professionals and providing them with a strategic road map to achieve accreditation.

As the gold standard of international laboratory certification, ASCP is uniquely qualified to develop key principles for successfully moving toward the goal of laboratory accreditation. To that end, ASCP collaborated, developed, and launched the laboratory management tool called Strengthening Laboratory Management Toward Accreditation (SLMTA), in collaboration with CDC, World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa (WHO-AFRO), and The Clinton Foundation. Since the launch of SLMTA, ASCP has implemented the SLMTA training process in Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Rwanda, Swaziland, and Tanzania.

ASCP has been working to implement the SLMTA training process in Rwanda since 2010. Our work has been paying off with tremendous results. Today, the National Reference Laboratory, Central Hospital Kigali, and Rwanda Military Hospital Laboratory are all close to achieving the five-star mark on the WHO-AFRO checklist and applying for international accreditation.

ASCP: Contributing to Sustainability

QUALITY

QUALITY

Through all ASCP Global Outreach efforts, ASCP seeks to instill the principles of accountability, transparency, empowerment, advocacy, and sustainability, so that it is easier for ASCP consultants to teach in-country laboratory professionals how

to improve their laboratories. In the end, it’s all about sustainability. ASCP consultants will eventually leave, but the improved infrastructure and training of medical laboratory professionals will continue.

RWANDA

“The SLMTA model pulls countries together to adopt the same standards and to help each other move forward to control and prevent diseases like HIV/AIDS through better healthcare delivery.”

— Dr. Hilborne

The global health initiatives of ASCP Global Outreach are unique among medical societies. ASCP’s members have unparalleled levels of experience and expertise in laboratory medicine. Our staff and consultants have been able to quickly cultivate relationships with stakeholders all over the world and to teach laboratory professionals how to make significant improvements in laboratory practice.

In our efforts against HIV/AIDS in resource-limited countries, a strong laboratory system is critical for proper prevention, care, and treatment. By strengthening laboratories in Africa and other resource-limited countries, we are contributing to sustainable efforts that will enable those countries to deliver care to their people for years to come. Our efforts are bearing fruit, but there is still a long way to go. We are convinced that together we can achieve amazing things.

Since 2010, ASCP Global Outreach staff has worked with three laboratories in Namibia, taking them from baseline assessments and through ASCP’s Basic Laboratory Operations Training. A year later, ASCP consultants returned and found that the laboratories had made great improvements in their infrastructure. They had streamlined pre-analytic workflow, reduced turnaround times, improved use of documents and records, and reduced stock-outs.

KNOWLEDGEASCP: Strengthening Laboratories, Improving Patient Health

“ASCP is a patient-centered organization; our help for patients does not stop at our national boundaries. With more than 100,000 members, the Society has the breadth and depth of expertise in pathology and laboratory medicine to direct our resources on multiple fronts at the same time.”

— Dr. Blair Holladay, ASCP Executive Vice President

NAMIBIA

KNOWLEDGE

Learn more about ASCP Global Outreach:

www.ascp.org/outreach