/ 14 December 2012

Celebrating a lifetime of lab excellence

Professor Barry Schoub received the ASLM Lifetime Achievement Award
Professor Barry Schoub received the ASLM Lifetime Achievement Award

Professor Barry Schoub received the ASLM Lifetime Achievement Award, which recognises an exceptional individual whose contributions to laboratory science have made a positive impact on public health.

Commenting on his award Schoub said he felt very honoured, but that it was more a reflection of the entire team he has worked with over the past three decades at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD).

In 1976 Schoub joined the National Institute for Virology, which became the NICD in 2002 under the National Health Laboratory Service.

His role was twofold: administering, overseeing and managing the institute, and managing the NICD's relationships with its many stakeholders, including the national and provincial departments of health, various South African universities, the World Health Organisation, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the US, the Health Protection Agency in the United Kingdom, and others.

Now retired as executive director, Schoub remains with the NICD as a senior consultant and acting head of the centre for vaccines and immunology within the institute.

"ASLM is an enormously exciting advancement for laboratory and medical science on the African continent. Until a few years ago, laboratory medicine in the rest of Africa was neglected. "ASLM is highlighting the pivotal role labs play in diagnostics. The success of this inaugural conference, with its considerable turnout from countries across Africa, bodes well for the future, encouraging and enabling collaboration and networking between institutions," he said.

ASLM awards

The following awards were bestowed at the ASLM conference:

Certificate of recognition for accreditation of government laboratories

Recognising newly-accredited government laboratories in Africa. Botswana

National TB Reference Laboratory Nyangabgwe Hospital HIV Reference Laboratory Bamalete Lutheran Hospital Laboratory Botswana-Harvard HIV Reference Laboratory

South Africa

NHLS: Groote Schuur Hospital

NHLS: Division of Hospital Epidemiology and Infection Control (HEIC) Laboratory NHLS: Addington Hospital

NHLS: Braamfontein Laboratory NHLS: Chris Hani Baragwanath Lab NHLS: George Provincial Hospital

NHLS: East London NHLS: Green Point Complex NHLS: Livingston NHLS: Mankweng Laboratory

NHLS: National Institute for Communicable Disease: (NICD) NHLS: National Institute for Occupational Health

NHLS: Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital-Mthata Laboratory

NHLS: Port Elizabeth Lab Complex NHLS: Proficiency Testing Services

NHLS: Red Cross Children's Hospital

NHLS: Tshwane Academic Division

NHLS: Tygerberg Academic Laboratory NHLS: Universitas Academic Laboratory NHLS: Witbank Laboratory

NHLS: National Satellite Clinical Pathology Laboratory

NHLS: Dr George Mukhari Tertiary Laboratory

Mali

Mali MRTC Clinical Laboratory

Ethiopia

Ethiopia Health and Nutrition Research Institute — HIV and Other Viral Disease Research

Kenya

Nyeri Provincial General Hospital Kenya-Ampath Laboratory

Nigeria

445 Nigerian Air Force Laboratory

Best practice in laboratory medicine award

To promote and recognise a sustainable laboratory improvement or best practice leading to tangible and replicable outcomes for enhanced quality in laboratory systems and patient care. Uganda National TB Reference Laboratory

Best laboratory champion clinician award To promote and recognise clinicians in the field of laboratory science with profound impact and benefit to public health. Nigerian Minister of Health Professor CO Onyebuchi Chukwu

Lifetime achievement award To recognise an exceptional individual whose contributions to laboratory science has made a positive impact on public health. Professor Barry David Schoub