The one of the most reputed hospital-cum-universities in Pakistan, the Agha Khan University (AKU) has recently made headlines, with its laboratories being certified as world-class by an international medical body.

AKU’s labs are up to international standards, given their strict adherence to quality.

Cleared by College of American Pathologists

Recently its laboratories were cleared by the College of American Pathologists (CPA), a body that oversees an internationally recognized standard of clinical laboratories.

This accreditation by the CPA is a great step forward in the standard of provision of healthcare in the country and provides an example for other hospitals to try and emulate, including the government-run ones.

For the Agha Khan hospital, this piece of news is a big achievement. They have caught up with the level of healthcare offered at international standard hospitals. The laboratories are particularly important in this regard because their role will gain more importance as the healthcare standard in Pakistan rises.

Doctors and researchers are increasingly growing dependent on the accuracy of medical testing in these labs and the results they provide. The testing in these laboratories determines what diseases a patient might have and how to prevent them in the future.

World Class Labs With 10 Million Tests Conducted in 2016

The certification from CPA is proof of the fact that the AKUH laboratories have reached that standard in laboratory medicine where they no longer have to play catch up with the rest of the world and can start their own researches. This is particularly good for local researchers who are direly in need of world-class medical testing laboratories.

Shagufta Hassan, the Chief Operating Officer of Clinical Laboratories and Outreach Services, also said that tests from as far as Africa and Afghanistan are conducted here, totaling up to 10 million tests in 2016 alone.

Furthermore, the AKUH Clinical Laboratories have the largest laboratory network in Pakistan, while their main laboratory is based in Karachi. Besides this the hospital has also opened laboratories, medical centers, and specimen collection units in more than a hundred cities across Pakistan.

Via Express Tribune