Silmara Montalvão: Improving Global Hemophilia Diagnostics Through Sustained External Quality Assessment
Silmara Montalvão, Chair International External Quality Assessment Scheme (IEQAS) committee at World Federation of Hemophilia, shared a post on LinkedIn about a recent article she and her colleagues co-authored, published in Haemophilia, adding:
“Access to diagnosis is only the first step. The quality of that diagnosis matters just as much.
After many years working with laboratory quality assessment and training in different parts of the world, one thing has become increasingly clear to me: expanding access to laboratory testing must go hand in hand with ensuring the reliability of the results we provide.
This newly published analysis of the WFH International External Quality Assessment Scheme (IEQAS) brings together data from 268 laboratories in 114 countries, evaluated between 2016 and 2023.
The results show that important challenges remain. For FVIII, a fundamental assay for the diagnosis and management of hemophilia.
But there is also a very encouraging message: improvements observed over time, particularly in regions such as Africa and the Middle East, show that external quality assessment, education, training and sustained laboratory support can make a real difference.
For me, this is perhaps the most important message from this data: access and quality cannot be separated.
As hemophilia care continues to advance, strengthening laboratory capacity must remain part of the global effort to ensure that these advances truly reach patients everywhere.
I hope these findings can contribute to this discussion and support future initiatives to improve the quality and accessibility of diagnosis for people with bleeding disorders worldwide.
Global Diagnostics of Hemophilia and Bleeding Disorders: Insights From World Federation of Hemophilia International External Quality Assessment Scheme Program 2016 to 2023.”
Title: Global Diagnostics of Hemophilia and Bleeding Disorders: Insights From World Federation of Hemophilia International External Quality Assessment Scheme Program 2016 to 2023
Authors: Silmara de Lima Montalvão, Ian Jennings, Dianne P. Kitchen, Christopher Reilly-Stitt, Glenn F. Pierce, Andreina Tovar, Jayson Martin, Assad Haffar, Steve Kitchen
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