Corporate Membership

The African Society for Laboratory Medicine (ASLM) is a pan-African organisation com­mitted to achieving a healthier Africa by increasing access to quality laboratory services for all. Since our founding in 2011, we have worked with global, regional, and country stake­holders to strengthen laboratory and diagnostic services and networks, and to ensure that country needs and priorities are reflected in the global laboratory and diagnostic agenda.

It is widely recognized that strong laboratory systems are an essential component of sustainable health systems. Clinical laboratory tests have an immeasurable impact on diagnostic and treatment decisions made by health care providers and are known to improve treatment outcomes for patients. However, in Africa there are still significant barriers to consistent laboratory testing. ASLM plays a key role in guiding the African region to optimize its laboratory systems. This includes providing better linkages, standardisation, and operating systems between existing laboratories, and strengthening local cadres of qualified laboratory professionals capable of conducting disease sur­veillance, responding to health emergencies, and effectively contributing to patient care at every level of the laboratory network.

Corporate Membership Program

ASLM is offering a new type of partnership with the private sector based on a mutual objective to achieve equitable access to effective, quality-assured laboratory diagnostics on the continent. This offering will achieve the following through this unique public-private partnership approach:

• Establish an ‘Industry Forum’ or platform – where industry and country representatives will exchange ideas surrounding diagnostics, including needed multiplex platforms and ways to speed up regulation processes.
• Improve standards of practice – through leveraging practical knowledge from countries and providing access to industry partners’ relevant tools and solutions.
• Enhance workforce development via the ASLM Academy – identify ways to qualify laboratorians in the performance of certain diagnostic tests, offering courses as continuing education credits, and eventually certifying laboratorians to ensure their skillset is transferrable across the African continent.
• Generate intelligence for decision-making – by collecting data, includ­ing through GIS mapping of laboratories in Africa, analysing and sharing results to provide evidence-based guidance for placement of equipment, optimisation of various laboratory functions and improvement of labora­tory diagnostics and management on the continent.
• Disseminate knowledge and information by using ASLM’s vast reach to communicate on important topics via Lab Culture magazine, the African Journal of Laboratory Medicine
  (AJLM), at the ASLM biennial conference, via the LabCoP network, and through social media.

By supporting ASLM, Corporate Members attain greater exposure to the diverse ASLM membership base, including its new Laboratory Directors Forum (LabDF), as well as the opportunity to offer invaluable skills and expertise to ASLM’s work. Endorsed by the African Union, ASLM members represent African Ministries of Health, government policy makers, laboratory professionals and more. Additionally, Corporate Members gain connections to:

• Policy discussions aimed at improving the lives of more than 1 billion Africans
• Direct communications reaching more than 20,000 healthcare professionals globally
• Newly developed web portal focused on offering open-source laboratory content and updates

Please see our Corporate Membership Program Policy here.