IDSICAN Courtesy Visit

The Ikeja District Society of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (IDSICAN) led by the 34th Chairman of the district Mrs. Taibat Malomo, FCA who is also the Head of the Internal audit unit at the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIMR) paid a courtesy visit to the Institute on Wednesday, 7th July 2021 to foster a collaborative relationship.

The association (IDSICAN) interacted with the Director-General of NIMR Prof. Babatunde Lawal Salako and the management team on the ongoing research activities in the Institute. They also presented their intentions which will benefit the Institute as regards their various projects.

The team appreciated the DG for his continuous support to the district and his meritorious contribution to research by presenting him with a gift.

WANETAM 2 visit CTBR

The Center for Tuberculosis Research (CTBR) and West African Nodes of Excellence for TB, AIDS and Malaria 2 (WANETAM 2)

Following a rigorous desk review process by the WANETAM II Laboratory QA Training & implementation Work Group, the Center for Tuberculosis Research (CTBR) in the Department of Microbiology was selected to participate in the Laboratory Quality Assurance Training and Implementation Program. The objective of the program is to support center’s of excellence within the WANETAM consortium to implement quality management systems in conformance with the ISO 15189:2012 standards. The audit team was here on a two day (4th-5th April 2019) on-site assessment visit of the CTBR.

The visit started with a courtesy call to the office of the Director General, Prof  Babatunde Lawal Salako, the Head of Department, Dr Rosemary Audu then an opening meeting was held with the staff of CTBR. Also, in attendance were the mentors from the National TB and Leprosy Control Programme (NTBLCP) who were around on two days mentorship and supervisory visit earlier. Kindly browse the gallery for pictures of the event.

Center for Human Virology and Genomics (CHVG) listed as a WHO Prequalification Evaluating Laboratory

Center for Human Virology and Genomics, now a WHO Prequalification Evaluating Laboratory

The Center for Human Virology and Genomics (CHVG) in the Microbiology Department at the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIMR) has just been listed as a WHO Prequalification Evaluating Laboratory. This happened after a successful re-audit of the laboratory to ISO 15189:2012 standard by WHO Geneva on Monday 22nd January 2018. This makes CHVG the first laboratory in West Africa to attain this feat. It therefore means that this laboratory is now listed as a WHO Prequalification Evaluating Laboratory to perform evaluation of In Vitro Diagnostics (IVDs) either coordinated by WHO or commissioned by manufacturer. CHVG would now conduct independent performance evaluations of IVDs which will assist in the diagnosis and/or monitoring of infection with HIV-1, hepatitis B and hepatitis C.

CHVG management, staff and WHO auditors after the closing meeting

The Call by WHO

This laboratory which was recently accredited to ISO 15189:2012 began the journey to being listed as a WHO prequalification evaluating laboratory in December 2016. It was at the satellite session of Strengthening Laboratory Management toward Accreditation (SLMTA) workshop at the conference organized by the African Society of Laboratory Medicine (ASLM) that participants were challenged to attend the WHO session on prequalification evaluation of In vitro Diagnostics. At this session, there was an invitation to laboratories with experience in conducting independent performance evaluations of in vitro diagnostics (IVDs) which assist in the diagnosis and/or monitoring of infection with HIV-1/HIV-2, syphilis, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, Human Papillomavirus (HPV) and G6PD to submit an Expression of Interest for WHO Prequalification Evaluating Laboratories.  To be eligible to apply, laboratories have to be national laboratory that provide testing services to the government in their respective country particularly those located in geographical areas corresponding to the intended setting of use of the IVDs, such as Africa.

 

Activities of CHVG

The CHVG being a national reference laboratory for HIV and viral hepatitis, took up the challenge to submit an expression of interest because of its past experience. The laboratory has evaluated the performance of several IVDs in the past. Since 2004, it has been responsible for evaluating HIV rapid test kits for our national regulatory body in Nigeria. Similarly, it has been evaluating performance of hepatitis B and C rapid test kits for product distributors in the country. The objective of the performance evaluation is to ensure acceptable performance of the test kits before either product registration in the country and/or before they are recommended for mass screening exercise as in the case of hepatitis B and C kits. CHVG has in her biorepository a pool of characterized panels for HIV, hepatitis B and C prepared for this purpose.

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The laboratory is enrolled with the College of American Pathology and Quality Control for Molecular Diagnostics, which are independent external quality assessment providers to ensure her own proficiency. The laboratory has maintained satisfactory performance in these schemes over the years. The laboratory provides routine diagnostic services for HIV-1 confirmation, HIV-1 viral load and early infant diagnosis to our institutional HIV treatment center which cares for over 20,000 patients and patients from other health facilities. CHVG also conducts Hepatitis B and C serology and viral loads for several other hospitals and laboratories across the country. These are the sources for the continuous access to clinical samples from where panels are prepared for performance evaluation. The laboratory has highly skilled and competent personnel who perform these assays and evaluations. The laboratory practices quality management system and had been previously certified to ISO 9001:2008 (1). CHVG is one of the first cohorts of laboratories enrolled in the SLMTA roll out programme in Nigeria in 2010 and it had ASLM Four stars recognition in 2012 during the surveillance audit (2). Recently it obtained ISO 15189 accreditation from the South African National Accreditation Scheme.

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The journey towards WHO listing

As soon as the ASLM conference was over, we completed the WHO online forms and by 23rd December 2017 we submitted an application to WHO Prequalification of In Vitro Diagnostics Programme (3), Geneva. At this time, the documents of the laboratory had been successfully reviewed by the accreditation body. However, WHO required us to make some amendments our method validation reports which we did. The initial audit by WHO was scheduled for a date in May 2017 by which time the pre accreditation assessment by the accrediting body had taken place. Since the laboratory had been successfully assessed for accreditation within a space of about six weeks before this date, we quickly fixed the non-conformities raised and confidently awaited the WHO auditors. When the audit finally took place, several non-conformities were identified that made us almost gave up hope of being selected. Nevertheless, we summoned courage and effected immediate actions, we carried out root cause analyses and submitted the corrective action plans to WHO which were accepted. With the support of our top management, we effected the planned corrective actions within a period of six months. This process improved our system tremendously. The re-audit took place on the 22nd January and we were informed that the corrective action plans were effectively implemented consequently our laboratory has been enlisted as a WHO Evaluating laboratory.

Dr. Rosemary Audu, Deputy Director Research and Laboratory Director CHVG

We therefore enjoin other medical laboratories recently accredited in Africa to take up the challenge to identify long existing gaps that had limited best practices in our health systems. We need to harness our strength to improve medical diagnostics in the continent in order to justify the SLMTA investment made in us to attain our current accreditation status.

References

  1.  Audu RA, Sylvester-Ikondu U , Onwuamah CK, et al. (2012): Experience of Quality Management System in a Clinical Laboratory in Nigeria. Afr J. Lab. Med. 2012;1(1), art. #18, 5 Pages. http://dx.doi. org/10.4102/AJLM.V1I1.18.
  2.  Audu RA, Onubogu CC, Nwokoye NN, Ofuche E, Baboolal S, Oke O, Luman ET and Idigbe EO. Improving quality in national reference laboratories: The role of SLMTA and mentorship. Afr J Lab Med. 2014;3(2), Art. #200, 7 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ ajlm.v3i2.200.
  3. WHO Prequalification of In vitro Diagnostics. www. who.int/diagnostics laboratory