Pathologists Overseas: A volunteer-based model for building sustainable, high-quality pathology and laboratory medicine services in low- and middle-income countries

Abstract

For thirty years Pathologists Overseas (PO) has worked in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) to provide affordable, sustainable, and high-quality pathology and laboratory medicine (PALM) services through strategic partnerships and the efforts of our large volunteer network. We address low quality diagnostic services by targeting the 3 pillars of PALM quality: human resources, systems, and quality and accreditation. To improve human resource capacity, PO and our partnering organizations provide virtual continuing education to pathologists and laboratory professionals in these countries. To improve systems, we provide laboratory information system installation and implementation support. Lastly, to improve quality and help laboratories progress toward accreditation, we support an external quality assurance program for laboratories in LMICs. As a relatively small organization, PO demonstrates that a network of dedicated volunteers, in partnership with corporations and professional organizations, can initiate sustainable change in the quality of PALM services in LMICs by focusing efforts on the core components of laboratory quality.

Sustainable development goals applied to digital pathology and artificial intelligence applications in low- to middle-income countries

“…The prioritization of large-scale goals, relevant to a specific question (here AI), enables identification of synergistic large-scale initiatives. For example, goal 4 (quality education) provides concrete data on improper infrastructure and contributing projects that entail virtual learning (39)(40)(41)(42). The relevance here is, that individual laboratories can engage practically (inclusion in virtual learning sessions) as well as through resource management (e.g., identification of local or national funding initiatives) (3, 21,38,43).…”