Using Data to Place Diagnostic Services Where Needed

The African Society for Laboratory Medicine’s (ASLM) LabMaP project is leveraging data to help countries in Africa determine the most impactful locations to place diagnostic services, using the Planwise open-source software. From 4 March to 24 April, ASLM in collaboration with InSTEDD, organised virtual Planwise trainings of 32 experts to create new draft projects in eight countries, including Burkina Faso, Gabon, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Sao Tome and Zimbabwe.

The Planwise software was developed using industry best practices in geospatial modelling and optimisation, and enables planners to determine the most impactful location to add a new service, complete training, or purchase equipment. Planwise allows the user to perform a variety of analytical operations in order to make these decisions. The user can determine the catchment area of laboratory facilities in their network, based on population demographics and travel times. They can compare the most impactful ways to increase the coverage and quality of diagnostic services through the laboratory network and make smarter decisions about resource allocation. Planwise also helps the user evaluate the projected cost to scale-up a new diagnostic test or service.

 

Prior to the training, ASLM worked with countries to define their individual priority test goals, reviewed LabMaP datasets, and develop population accessibility projects to estimate populations covered and not covered by laboratory services. Key projects included increasing HIV testing and improving tuberculosis (TB) coverage by decentralising to expert sites.

The training, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Resolve To Save Lives, has helped increase the capacity of the ministries of health from participating countries to undertake analysis of population accessibility to laboratories. However, more work needs to be done to fulfil this goal. Countries should review the accuracy and completeness of the data used for optimisation, to refine the population accessibility analysis and scenarios. They should present the final scenarios for optimisation to senior technical staff and leadership for review and possible adoption, and develop a work plan to operationalise the adopted scenarios.

ASLM will continue to provide support along the way through ongoing virtual LabMaP trainings. Each training session was recorded and will be made available along with video tutorials for Planwise and LabMaP through the ASLM Academy.