Global Lab eTools repository was initiated by the Global Fund in collaboration with the Association of Public Health Laboratories (www.aphl.org). The intent is to assist country health leaders, public health laboratories, and key decision makers with reviewing, comparing, and evaluating laboratory tools to select and implement the tool best suited to their laboratories.

Users are able to view, compare and, filter tools based on their needs and features of tools available. The tools have been evaluated using a custom developed maturity framework.

While similar efforts to develop a repository have been undertaken in the past, this project focuses on:

• – Laboratory tools that support various data needs of laboratories.
• – Commercial, open source and in-house developed solutions. Therefore these are not limited to open source software or data
• – Tools with evidence of use in at least one of the regions supported by the Global Fund
• – An interactive repository that enables users to filter and query based on key criteria and compare short listed options
• – A maturity model that scores laboratory tools on a 5 point scale across 10 categories, thus providing decision-makers with breadth and depth of detail about each tool

Objectives

The Global Lab etools project aims to provide health leaders a comprehensive online repository to view, filter, and select Laboratory eTools that respond to the needs of their laboratories. Creating a centralized repository for information will provide health leaders with the tools to assess, select and deploy laboratory health tools in an integrated environment, and will enable south-south collaboration in assessing available eTools. Mapping of available laboratory eTools is expected to provide an incentive for software publishers and laboratory eTool developers to continue developing functionality of their solutions, and drive opportunities for interoperability between platforms.

Why only laboratory and not health in general

Disease diagnostics, monitoring  and  surveillance  services  require  reliable laboratory  services  with capacity  to  detect,  investigate  and  report  potential  public  health  emergencies  of  international concern. The past decade has seen  an  explosion  of  research  and  activity  relating  to product  development  for  laboratory  services.  However, there is currently no  mechanism  for independently vetting the strengths and limitations of these laboratory tools or their suitability and efficiency. 

This project aims to provide a globally available repository of laboratory tools to enable optimal functioning of laboratories including diagnostics reporting, monitoring and surveillance activities for disease programs and global health security threats. Laboratories are the core of disease surveillance and response; however their needs for systems and data tools are often overlooked in favor of national health information or disease surveillance systems.  Laboratories have unique needs and, therefore, need solutions that are specifically designed to support these needs.

This project enables gathering of information on commercial and open source systems to ensure health leaders have all information at their disposal in order to make decisions for their context. This project also focuses on establishing a Community of Practice to enable the repository to grow and be of practical use as well as to create a platform for community members/countries to share experiences, lessons learned and best practices.