PathCare to represent Nigeria in research medical diagnosis

In a statement signed by the Research Coordinator, Dr Tolulope Adewole of PathCare Laboratories noted that the current normal values used to interpret blood tests conducted within the country were obtained from research carried out on a foreign population. This may not necessarily represent exactly the situation of the Nigerian population.With this new research, these […]

In a statement signed by the Research Coordinator, Dr Tolulope Adewole of PathCare Laboratories noted that the current normal values used to interpret blood tests conducted within the country were obtained from research carried out on a foreign population. This may not necessarily represent exactly the situation of the Nigerian population.
With this new research, these “normal values” will be determined, which will be a true representative of the Nigerian population, hence it will strengthen the practice of evidence based medicine. It is this set of “normal values” that will help to know if one is actually ill or not.  The study will be conducted on the Nigerian public between the ages of 18 and 65 years”.
“ Working closely with Dr Tunji Soriyan, ethical approval was obtained via the Lagos University Teaching Hospital. The study is being done with both local and international collaborators; these include Prof Keisuke, Prof Ichihara in Japan. Ichihara from Teikyo UMC Japan and Prof Rajiv Erasmus from Stellenbosch University, South Africa.
The Head, Quality Assurance, Pathcare Laboratories, Janette Wassung stated that Quality Management is essential for research of this magnitude, only laboratories with an internationally recognised quality management system such as ISO 15189 accreditation can participate in such a project, which is why PathCare Nigeria was selected.
She also stated that similar studies are also being carried out in other countries, such as the USA, South Africa, Kenya, Japan, Central Asia & the Far East.
It is critical to the success of this landmark project that only healthy persons are enrolled into the study, thus making people with the following health conditions ineligible as volunteers for the research, persons with High Blood Pressure; Diabetes (blood sugar); any other health conditions for which medication is currently taken; or any other health conditions for which one has been hospitalized in the past 2 weeks; Blood donors within 3 months and blood recipients.