The Healthcare Federation of Ghana (HFG) has announced the successful installation of the SchuyLab digital Laboratory Information System (LIS) at the Virology Laboratories of Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research.  

The SchuyLab LIS will expand Covid-19 testing capacity at Noguchi by over 30%, and increase the speed of delivering test results.

The new LIS will also strengthen the traceability, efficiency, confidentiality, archiving and retrieval of results.

The installation at the Noguchi Virology Laboratories is the first phase of the “LIS for Ghana” project and is planned to be followed this year by a similar installation at the National Public Health Reference Laboratory, Accra (‘NPHRL’).   

The “LIS for Ghana” project has a total cost of over ¢600,000.

The Project Manager is Medlab Services Ghana Ltd, led by its Managing Director Dr Rosemary Keatley who has a deep knowledge of medical diagnostics and laboratory information systems.  

Dr Keatley is a Board member of the Healthcare Federation of Ghana.   

The UK-trained and US Board-certified physician served for 20 years on the Board of Medlab Ghana Ltd (now Synlab Ghana) where she was Managing Director for 10 years.  

SchuyLab was developed by the US software developer Schuyler House Inc, a CompuGroup Medical company, based in California, and has been installed in over 1,000 laboratories worldwide, including the US, Canada, the Caribbean, East Asia and Africa.  

The system has been in use at Synlab Ghana Ltd (formerly Medlab Ghana Ltd) since 2011.

Private donors have funded over 80% of the cost of the project, with the remainder provided by the Covid-19 National Trust Fund.  

Notable donors include the Ghana Covid-19 Private Sector Fund, Fidelity Bank Ghana Ltd, Sir Sam Jonah, the Leibinger family of Germany, Medlab Services Ghana Ltd, SchuylerHouse Inc., and some anonymous donors in Switzerland.

Professor Abraham Anang, Director of Noguchi, said, “We are grateful to Dr Rosemary Keatley and the project team for the installation of this state-of-the-art system. We also thank the donors from all over the world for their generous support.  

"We are ramping up the rate of Covid-19 testing, and the SchuyLab system will automate the logging of samples, verification of test results and archiving of data, which previously had to be done manually.”

Dr Rosemary Keatley, Managing Director of Medlab Services Ghana Ltd, said, “This project will have a major multiplier effect by building sustainable capacity to manage the Covid-19 pandemic on behalf of the people of Ghana.”

Janet Chennault, Vice-President of SchuylerHouse, Inc. said, “We are pleased to be helping Ghana through the installation of SchuyLab at Noguchi. We at Schuyler House will continue to make good tools that can be used to increase the efficiency of health care and improve the human condition.”

On his part, Julian Opuni, the Managing Director of Fidelity Bank Ghana said they believe that it is very important to support Noguchi with modern equipment that will increase their testing capacity to help Ghana defeat the Covid-19 pandemic.

"Living up to our brand promise of ‘Together We’re More’, Fidelity Bank will continue to support the government and other institutions that are at the forefront of the fight against Covid-19.”