The poor capacity and quality of POC diagnostics are critical barriers to adequate health care for millions of people in Africa. The POC meeting held last May focused at evaluating the current state and future-actions needed to overcome existing barriers for the appropriate use and integration of POC diagnostics in African countries national programs and at seeking the overall improvement of POC diagnosis.
Despite the launching of several chief initiatives on POC in Africa, thru awareness primarily with regards of quality, regulatory harmonization and monitoring, these remained a concern; hence, shared commitment and engagement amongst critical stakeholders to resolve these issues needs to be endorsed.
The ASLM proposes a platform to these international key actors:
- to build on partnerships,
- to deliberate and increase awareness on the importance of quality control, evaluation and proper monitoring and implementation, and regulatory harmonization of POC.
The meeting supported further the consolidation of these engagements, with the participation of representative members of African MOH, regulatory agencies, international institutions and initiatives, academic associations, NGOs, research institutes from developed and developing countries, industry representatives and donors – over 60 participants – the meeting reached its objectives and set up further the pace to move forward in the quest for better POC diagnosis and diagnostics in Africa.