Dear Colleagues,
The next IFCC webinar: “Equity and Access to Laboratory Testing” – will be held on July 9, 2025.
As laboratory testing has become the mainstay of modern-day clinical decision making, it is pertinent that equity and access to laboratory testing is ensured to all. All modern societies are striving to ensure the same for all their citizens. In this webinar we wish to promote the idea of equity and spread awareness regarding the same to ensure free and fair access to laboratory diagnostics for all citizens. We would have four renowned speakers from three different parts of the globe to talk on their experiences and experiments on promoting these ideologies in their realm of work. Our first speaker would discuss how AI-enabled diagnostic tools can extend the reach of laboratory services into remote areas, reducing reliance on centralized labs. He will discuss how AI can be used in optimizing supply chains, predicting disease outbreaks, and supporting healthcare workers with decision-assist systems, enhancing both efficiency and diagnostic accuracy. With real-world examples and emerging use cases, this presentation will offer insights into how AI can create a more inclusive healthcare landscape, positioning Africa’s health systems to overcome historic barriers and advance diagnostic equity for impactful, sustainable improvements in laboratory testing accessibility across Africa. Our second speaker would discuss the Ethical issues around the use of race in medical equations. The incorporation of race and ethnicity into clinical algorithms to “correct” for observed racial differences in disease biomarkers and physiological function raises significant ethical concerns, since it endorses a biological basis for race and may create or perpetuate racial and ethnic healthcare disparities. This session will focus on the ethical considerations for the inclusion and exclusion of race from clinical algorithms. Our third speaker would talk about usage of online platforms to engage more people in STBBI testing, how it reduces the barriers in accessing traditional clinic-based testing, and increase the capacity of the healthcare system to meet the demand for STBBI testing. This presentation will highlight how clinical and laboratory medicine can partner to improve health equity and will summarize the experience about the population, public health and health system impacts of “GetCheckedOnline” in the last 10 years. Our final speaker will talk on navigating the ethical challenges of direct-to-consumer laboratory testing. This presentation will explore the ethical implications of DTC testing, focusing on key principles such as autonomy, beneficence/non-maleficence, and justice. We will examine how different models of consumer-initiated testing can either uphold or fail to uphold these ethical principles, highlighting the potential for both positive and negative outcomes. Thus the webinar would provide a holistic overview of the challenges to Equity and Access to Laboratory Testing.
This webinar comprises of three following presentations of 20 min each followed by 20 min of panel discussion at the end.
Chair: Dr. Sudip Kumar Datta
Talk 1- “Leveraging Artificial intelligence (AI) to meet the Challenges of Equity and Access to Laboratory Testing in Africa” – Prof. Tahir Pillay
Talk 2- “Ethical issues around the use of race in medical equations” – Dr. Christina Pierre
Talk 3- “Improving health equity through digital access to sexually transmitted infections testing in British Columbia” – Dr. Devon Haag
Talk 4- “Autonomy or Harm? Navigating the ethics of direct-to-consumer laboratory testing” – Dr. Melissa Budelier
- Time Zones: Live presentations starting at: 10:00AM EDT-New York ; 4:00PM CET-Rome; 10:00PM CST-Beijing;
Important: Please ensure that you carefully determine the time that the presentation will start in your global time zone. Click here to convert to your time-zone.
- Recorded webinar: available on demand
- Certificate of participation: available for all registrants
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