Improvement in capacity and quality of pathology laboratories

A number of challenges in pathology and laboratory medicine were identified during Kigali’s situation analysis. These included insufficient infrastructure for basic histopathology and clinical laboratory services; limited availability of immunohistochemistry across the city; deficiencies in the supply chain of reagents and consumables in public laboratories; lack of training for sub-specialties of both pathologists and laboratory technicians; variation of quality control and operational procedures in laboratories; lack of information systems for cancer case reporting, including lack of standardised pathology reports and an external quality assurance programme; lack of training for sub-specialties of both pathologists and laboratory technicians, and no efficient specimen transportation system.

To improve access to and quality of pathology labs and diagnostics in Kigali.

A local multidisciplinary and inter-institutional team was assembled to coordinate the development of the different project outputs, in consultation with local and external experts nominated by the technical cooperation partners of City Cancer Challenge (C/Can).
The selected project team members conducted scientific visits to the Tata Memorial Hospital in Mumbai, India, a C/Can partner organisation. The final outputs will be endorsed by the City Executive Committee and the relevant authorities for implementation.