Luis Benavente spoke on August 29, 2012 at webinar hosted by CORE on lessons learned by the Improving Malaria Diagnostics [IMaD] project. IMaD and its partners conducted needs assessments in 13 countries and held over 13,000 training contacts, some with repeated participants (i.e. during nearly 3,000 outreach training and support supervision [OTSS] visits), in nine countries. Over 600 laboratory workers participated in IMaD guided malaria microscopy refresher training [MMRT]. The OTSS and MMRT programs seem to have an additive effect improving diagnostic test competence and adherence to test results, as one-to-one coaching takes care of constraints that are specific for a given workplace.
The upcoming annual meeting of the American Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene [ASTMH] will include several presentations related to the IMaD project’s work. Nicole Whitehurst will present OTSS findings, Luis Benavente will present on MMQA using a small number of slides re-examined during OTSS visits, and Dr J. Jones, Liberia's NMCP manager, will present on species identification and RDT selection.