EMLab at the WHO Emergency Medical Teams Global Meeting in Armenia
The European Mobile Laboratory (EMLab), which is coordinated by the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine (BNITM), participated in the World Health Organization (WHO) Emergency Medical Teams Global Meeting in Yerevan, Armenia, from 5 – 7 October 2022 to promote interoperability between EMTs and mobile laboratories.
The European Mobile lab (EMLab), managed by the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine (BNITM), is specialized in field diagnostics of high consequence pathogens such as Ebola and Lassa viruses. The EMLab is a partner of the World Health Organization and the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN), and belongs to the European Medical Corps (EMC) as part of the European Civil Protection Pool (ECPP). Based on a type II (box-based) modular rapid response mobile lab (RRML) system, EMLab is able to deploy to remote locations during an outbreak, bringing fully equipped and state-of-the-art diagnostics wherever needed.
One of the modules of EMLab operational capacity involves clinical care and support to EMTs or field medical teams during health emergencies, in addition to its core diagnostic services. In an effort to promote interoperability between medical emergency response capacities, the EMLab was invited to the WHO Emergency Medical Teams (EMT) Global Meeting in Yerevan, Armenia from 5 – 7 October 2022, to present an informational talk as well as an exhibition booth demonstrating mobile laboratory capabilities and potential areas of interoperability with EMTs.
Facts
During the three-day meeting, three members of the EMLab team based at BNITM were able to present, showcase and discuss the main concepts of EMLab including the glovebox, sample processing for PCR based diagnostics and the genomic surveillance capacity (sequencing). The meeting gathered over 700 participants across 110 countries. In line with its core activity, EMLab is honored to have been part of the EMT 2030 strategy launch which aims at preparing for and strengthening the response during health emergencies.
