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A Systematic Approach to Capacity Strengthening of Laboratory Systems for Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases in Ghana, Kenya, Malawi and Sri Lanka

BACKGROUND: The lack of capacity in laboratory systems is a major barrier to achieving the aims of the London Declaration (2012) on neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). To counter this, capacity strengthening initiatives have been carried out in NTD laboratories worldwide. Many of these initiatives f...

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Autores principales: Njelesani, Janet, Dacombe, Russell, Palmer, Tanith, Smith, Helen, Koudou, Benjamin, Bockarie, Moses, Bates, Imelda
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3945753/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24603407
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0002736
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author Njelesani, Janet
Dacombe, Russell
Palmer, Tanith
Smith, Helen
Koudou, Benjamin
Bockarie, Moses
Bates, Imelda
author_facet Njelesani, Janet
Dacombe, Russell
Palmer, Tanith
Smith, Helen
Koudou, Benjamin
Bockarie, Moses
Bates, Imelda
author_sort Njelesani, Janet
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: The lack of capacity in laboratory systems is a major barrier to achieving the aims of the London Declaration (2012) on neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). To counter this, capacity strengthening initiatives have been carried out in NTD laboratories worldwide. Many of these initiatives focus on individuals' skills or institutional processes and structures ignoring the crucial interactions between the laboratory and the wider national and international context. Furthermore, rigorous methods to assess these initiatives once they have been implemented are scarce. To address these gaps we developed a set of assessment and monitoring tools that can be used to determine the capacities required and achieved by laboratory systems at the individual, organizational, and national/international levels to support the control of NTDs. METHODOLOGY AND PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We developed a set of qualitative and quantitative assessment and monitoring tools based on published evidence on optimal laboratory capacity. We implemented the tools with laboratory managers in Ghana, Malawi, Kenya, and Sri Lanka. Using the tools enabled us to identify strengths and gaps in the laboratory systems from the following perspectives: laboratory quality benchmarked against ISO 15189 standards, the potential for the laboratories to provide support to national and regional NTD control programmes, and the laboratory's position within relevant national and international networks and collaborations. CONCLUSION: We have developed a set of mixed methods assessment and monitoring tools based on evidence derived from the components needed to strengthen the capacity of laboratory systems to control NTDs. Our tools help to systematically assess and monitor individual, organizational, and wider system level capacity of laboratory systems for NTD control and can be applied in different country contexts.
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spelling pubmed-39457532014-03-12 A Systematic Approach to Capacity Strengthening of Laboratory Systems for Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases in Ghana, Kenya, Malawi and Sri Lanka Njelesani, Janet Dacombe, Russell Palmer, Tanith Smith, Helen Koudou, Benjamin Bockarie, Moses Bates, Imelda PLoS Negl Trop Dis Research Article BACKGROUND: The lack of capacity in laboratory systems is a major barrier to achieving the aims of the London Declaration (2012) on neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). To counter this, capacity strengthening initiatives have been carried out in NTD laboratories worldwide. Many of these initiatives focus on individuals' skills or institutional processes and structures ignoring the crucial interactions between the laboratory and the wider national and international context. Furthermore, rigorous methods to assess these initiatives once they have been implemented are scarce. To address these gaps we developed a set of assessment and monitoring tools that can be used to determine the capacities required and achieved by laboratory systems at the individual, organizational, and national/international levels to support the control of NTDs. METHODOLOGY AND PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We developed a set of qualitative and quantitative assessment and monitoring tools based on published evidence on optimal laboratory capacity. We implemented the tools with laboratory managers in Ghana, Malawi, Kenya, and Sri Lanka. Using the tools enabled us to identify strengths and gaps in the laboratory systems from the following perspectives: laboratory quality benchmarked against ISO 15189 standards, the potential for the laboratories to provide support to national and regional NTD control programmes, and the laboratory's position within relevant national and international networks and collaborations. CONCLUSION: We have developed a set of mixed methods assessment and monitoring tools based on evidence derived from the components needed to strengthen the capacity of laboratory systems to control NTDs. Our tools help to systematically assess and monitor individual, organizational, and wider system level capacity of laboratory systems for NTD control and can be applied in different country contexts. Public Library of Science 2014-03-06 /pmc/articles/PMC3945753/ /pubmed/24603407 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0002736 Text en © 2014 Njelesani et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Njelesani, Janet
Dacombe, Russell
Palmer, Tanith
Smith, Helen
Koudou, Benjamin
Bockarie, Moses
Bates, Imelda
A Systematic Approach to Capacity Strengthening of Laboratory Systems for Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases in Ghana, Kenya, Malawi and Sri Lanka
title A Systematic Approach to Capacity Strengthening of Laboratory Systems for Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases in Ghana, Kenya, Malawi and Sri Lanka
title_full A Systematic Approach to Capacity Strengthening of Laboratory Systems for Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases in Ghana, Kenya, Malawi and Sri Lanka
title_fullStr A Systematic Approach to Capacity Strengthening of Laboratory Systems for Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases in Ghana, Kenya, Malawi and Sri Lanka
title_full_unstemmed A Systematic Approach to Capacity Strengthening of Laboratory Systems for Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases in Ghana, Kenya, Malawi and Sri Lanka
title_short A Systematic Approach to Capacity Strengthening of Laboratory Systems for Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases in Ghana, Kenya, Malawi and Sri Lanka
title_sort systematic approach to capacity strengthening of laboratory systems for control of neglected tropical diseases in ghana, kenya, malawi and sri lanka
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3945753/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24603407
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0002736
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