LabSkills Africa
LabSkills Africa a global health initiative was established a decade ago to build capacity and improve the standards and quality of pathology and laboratory medicine services in sub-Saharan Africa through skills training, knowledge transfer, leadership development and mentoring.
This initiative was developed and implemented by the College in partnership with the College of Pathologists of East, Central and Southern Africa (COPECSA), East, Cea ntral and Southern Africa Health Community (ECSA-HC) and the British Division of the International Academy of Pathology (BDIAP).
The pilot was funded by a grant from the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and aimed to contribute towards the improvement of clinical decision-making and increase patient safety through measures designed to raise the standards and quality of specific laboratory services and tests that supported the diagnosis and management of health conditions related to Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 4, 5 and 6. The pilot ran in 20 laboratories and trained 100 pathologists, laboratory technicians and biomedical scientists in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia & Zimbabwe in leadership, quality management and bench competencies. The 20 laboratories involved in the pilot serve a combined population of 110 million people and perform more than 1.7 million tests annually.
