High Quality Diagnosis: An Essential Pathology Package

Authors: Kenneth Fleming, Mahendra Naidoo, Michael Wilson, John Flanigan, Susan Horton, Modupe Kuti, Lai Meng Looi, Christopher Price, Kun Ru, Abdul Ghafur, Jianxiang Wang, Nestor Lago

Citation:

Abstract:

This chapter specifies an essential minimal package of services that should prove available in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) to provide access to pathology services of acceptable quality, affordability, and timeliness to a majority of the population, especially outside of major cities. Pathology remains a cross-cutting discipline upon which the other health disciplines depend and a crucial component in the care pathway. Pathologists are diagnosticians who, as part of the clinical team, play a key role in (1) linking clinical services with laboratory services; (2) providing leadership; and (3) capitalizing on the opportunities arising from rapidly emerging new technologies. Pathology contributes to research in both communicable and noncommunicable diseases, and it plays a central role in national policy planning. The rapidly increasing burden of noncommunicable diseases makes the implementation of the essential pathology package a priority, and its provision requires an integrated network to achieve the benefits of shared knowledge, expertise, communication, and economies of scale.