ASLM2016 Awards Ceremony

The biennial ASLM Awards Ceremony recognises individuals and laboratories committed to strengthening laboratory medicine in Africa.

Awards will be presented onsite on Thursday, 8 December 2016, at the ASLM2016 international conference in Cape Town, South Africa.

The nominations period is now closed.

Click here to view past awards winners.

 

ASLM2016 Awards Category Details

Best Laboratory Champion Clinician Award

The ASLM2016 Best Laboratory Champion Clinician Award seeks to promote and recognise an exceptional clinician in the field of public health whose work has had a profound impact and/or benefit on laboratory medicine in Africa.

Clinicians who meet the following criteria are eligible (self-nomination is acceptable):

  • Playing a key role in providing laboratory services to under served and hard to reach populations.
  • Promoting the integration of laboratory services in individual health.
  • Serving/practising in public and/or private clinics or hospitals.
  • Advocating for laboratory-based diagnosis.
  • Influential in laboratory policy development.
  • Strengthening laboratory-clinician interface.

Best Practice in Laboratory Medicine Award

The ASLM2016 Best Practice in Laboratory Medicine Award seeks to promote and recognise a sustained laboratory improvement/best practice leading to tangible and replicable outcomes for enhanced quality in laboratory systems and patient care. Nominations from any resource-limited setting are acceptable, including from outside Africa.

Nominations for the Best Practice Award should demonstrate the following:

  • Contributes towards improvement in outcomes for laboratory medicine in areas like diagnosis, surveillance, turn-around time, quality assurance, referral systems, biosafety or biosecurity, receiving specimens, developing guidelines, contribution to policy, or other improvement projects.
  • Nominated practice is the best way, one of the best ways, or a proven way to achieve or contribute toward achieving the improvement in outcomes for laboratory medicine (which is replicable and worthy of adoption by others).
  • Has tangible positive impact, or the practice captured improvement in a newly introduced method over a course of time in comparison to the baseline data.
  • If applicable, illustrates the use of quality assurance (including compliance self-assessment) methods and/or continuous quality improvement principles to develop, check, or prove that a practice is the best practice.
  • Practice is replicable and can be (or has been) widely adopted or adapted.
  • Demonstrates leadership by example.

Certificate of Recognition for Laboratory Accreditation

Accreditation is the recognition of a laboratory’s quality of work and competence to perform well. ASLM commends accredited laboratories for choosing to strengthen and improve their laboratories through the accreditation process.

ASLM is seeking to recognise accredited government laboratories in Africa. All African government laboratories that have become accredited or re-accredited between 5 September 2014 and 5 October 2016 are eligible for recognition.

Lifetime Achievement Award

The ASLM2016 Lifetime Achievement Award seeks to recognise an exceptional individual whose outstanding contributions and leadership to laboratory medicine have made a positive impact on public health.

These contributions may be a new innovation, new knowledge, or ways to improve professional practice. Importantly, the contributions should be above and beyond the call of duty and have had a long lasting impact in the public health sector.

ASLM will recognise an exceptional individual who meets the following criteria:

  1. The majority of nominee’s work must have occurred in the public health field with focus on laboratory medicine.
  2. The nominee is respected by his or her peers within the country, region and internationally.
  3. The nominee has an established history of distinguished service (30+ years of experience).
  4. The nominee has made a lasting contribution to laboratory medicine.
  5. The nominee has exhibited leadership and provided inspiration to others in the sector, as well as positively influenced public health on a national and international level.