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