Following a visit last year by VUMC faculty member Dr Quentin Eichbaum (Professor of Pathology, and Chair of an Education Committee at the American Society for Clinical Pathology, ASCP) to hospitals and health facilities in rural Sierra Leone and Liberia, the ASCP agreed to sponsor a laboratory medicine training course for laboratory medicine supervisors and specialists at rural and city health facilities spread through these countries. The course was part of an initiative for laboratory test strengthening in these countries that were the epicenters of the Ebola epidemic a few years ago. Onsite training was considered valuable in yielding insights into current practices and to provide hands-on training.
The US training team included two VUMC faculty members, Dr. Quentin Eichbaum (co-Medical Director of Transfusion Medicine) and Dr Charles Stratton (Director of Microbiology Labs) in the Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology. Intensive training was provided over a period of one week at Koidu Government Hospital in Kono district of rural west Sierra Leone with participation from the Ministries of Health and the Boston-based NGO Partners in Health. The course consisted of both formal and laboratory bench training. The course received outstanding evaluations from participants who were given copies of all training materials. Follow-up distance-learning, telemedicine calls, and periodic conferences calls were implemented to sustain the onsite training.
