Disseminating Laboratory research from Senegal. By Dr. Aicha Marceline Sarr

Welcome back from the holidays! I hope you had a wonderful time with your families.  Last year was crowned with a blog about the politics of evidence from Prof. Justin Parkhust.  It was still in December 2016 that the African Society for Laboratory Medicine  (ASLM) held their  third biennial international conference in Cape Town, South Africa. The conference was attended by laboratory experts from allover the world, policy makers, researchers as well as representatives form the academia.

ASLM was used as a platform for the international laboratory medicine community to share best practices, acquire knowledge and debate innovative approaches for combatting global health threats. The conference focused on the areas of Global Health Security, Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) and partnerships for achieving the Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA) and international targets, improving the clinical-laboratory interface, harmonizing national and regional networks and improving laboratory management via quality management systems and regulatory harmonization.

Socialab Senegal, one of the coalitions funded by WOTRO and aims at identifying barriers to effective laboratory services at different levels (i.e. practical, organizational, economic, social cultural and historical) of the health system, with a specific focus on antenatal care had an opportunity to share findings at the conference. The team participated with three poster presentations; (i) Improving the clinical-laboratory interface to increase uptake of antenatal maternal screening: Recommendations from a mixed-methods study in public health facilities in Senegal (ii) Rule of logistics in the utilization of laboratory in antenatal care in Senegal: Study conducted in 16 health facilities and (iii) ANC screening tests are under-utilized in Senegal, despite the availability of ANC testing facilities.

Dr. Aicha Maerceline Sarr (the contact person for socialab) presenting at the ASLM conference

One of the posters that was presented by the Socialab team at ASLM 2016

It was a great opportunity for the team to  share their findings that have greatly interested the scientific community in Senegal and beyond.  

Our thanks and gratitude to KTNET  Africa project for having supported our participation to this prestigious event.