Laboratory capacity is essential to clinical research, especially in low income settings

In PLoS Medicine this week, Heiman Wertheim (Oxford University) and colleagues discuss a network that aims to improve infectious disease management through integrated, collaborative clinical research in South East Asia. The South East Asia Infectious Disease Clinical Research Network (SEAICRN) is a collaborative partnership of hospitals and institutions in Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Singapore. The network strives to advance scientific knowledge and clinical and laboratory management of infectious disease in general, and influenza in particular, through integrated, collaborative clinical research in the South East Asia region (see www.seaicrn.org/). In the Health in Action article published in PLoS Medicine this week, the authors comment on the importance of laboratory improvement, emphasizing that "enhancing laboratory capacity is essential for generating reliable and accurate data from clinical resea rch, especially in resource-constrained settings." The authors also say that "local well-trained laboratory experts and scientists are important to research, and must participate actively in scientific activities and continuing education programs."

More information:
Wertheim HFL, Puthavathana P, Nghiem NM, van Doorn HR, Nguyen TV, et al. (2010) Laboratory Capacity Building in Asia for Infectious Disease Research: Experiences from the South East Asia Infectious Disease Clinical Research Network (SEAICRN). PLoS Med 7(4): e1000231. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000231.

Provided by Public Library of Science