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Projects

An overview of our international projects and our expertise in other countries

National TB Laboratory Strategic Plan (NTLSP)

The NTLSP is not only a prerequisite for a successful Global Fund application for funding, it also forms the strategic guard rail for all laboratory related activities of the National TB program over a five year period and beyond.

When we support countries in preparing the NTLSP, it is important to us that all TB stakeholders of the country feel well integrated in and informed about strategy development and implementation. We therefore promote early stakeholder meetings allowing all partners involved in TB control to actively contribute to the discussion and provide their input.

IML experts have actively assisted NTLSP development and implementation since 2015 in Nepal, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Ukraine.

Our goal is to keep NLTSPs pragmatic, practice-oriented, with relevant targets and realistic time schedules.

The laboratory strategy should align with programmatic activities in other areas of the fight against TB, in particular with case and DR-TB management, active case finding, and pediatric TB.

TB Laboratory Network Optimization

IMLred experts have supported TB lab network optimization projects in several countries including Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Ukraine.

In many high TB prevalence countries, TB laboratory networks are still strongly influenced by conventional diagnostic methods such as smear microscopy or solid culture.
Although WHO recommends PCR as first line diagnostic test since 2014, lab networks rely heavily on microscopy laboratories.

Part of the TB lab network optimization is to reduce the number of such outdated facilities and to rather consolidate those local microscopy points in district GeneXpert laboratories.

Electronic Information Management and
Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS)

Though electronic data management (#ehealth) has long reached top priority in world wide health strengthening programs, manual data entry, copying data from paper based records, and manual information management are still the reality in most diagnostic laboratories of high TB-prevalence countries.

This carries strong risks of error. Patient data, the analyses performed, and the results entered in the database can are all susceptible to mistakes as a result of human error. Modern, comprehensive Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS) connect themselves with the medical information systems used by the submitting facilities and acquaint patient and clinical data directly without any manual entry.

The set of analyses to be performed are done so by automated algorithms, and can perform tasks such as alerting microbiologists when a culture remains positive for more three months and that DST should be repeated. Multiple of such automated algorithms can be configured in modern LIMS, making such systems real aids in laboratory management. In combination with a smart QMS, the LIMS thus becomes the backbone of workflow optimization and standardization. Particularly for TB diagnostics, that strongly depends on WHO endorsed standard algorithms, modern and intelligent LIMS are of key importance.

IML experts are currently completing the implementation of an electronic LIMS for TB lab network in Tajikistan. Through the system implementation, a very comprehensive catalogue of specifications, master data, and automated algorithms has evolved that can also be transferred to alternative LIMSs. Working together, and with this successful integration of a LIMS, we are looking forward to more opportunities to introduce these systems in more laboratories around the world.