Sabin Sebasirimu, Laboratory Safety Officer, Biomedical Center/National Reference laboratory, Rwanda
Nominated by Innocent Nzabahimana, Laboratory Technologist, Biomedical Center/National Reference laboratory, Rwanda
Sabin Sebasirimu is the Laboratory Safety Officer at the National Reference Laboratory, Kigali and a SLMTA Master Trainer. He started his quality improvement career among the first cohort of SLMTA trainees when the program was launched in 2009 in Kigali, Rwanda. Since 2005, he served as lead laboratory technologist in the Immunology section at the National Reference Laboratory. He has also served as a Laboratory Safety Officer and joined the laboratory Quality Assurance and Quality Control unit, which was established to improve quality management system in the Rwandan laboratory network and the East African region. It is my pleasure as his co-worker to convey my highest consideration for his involvement in Rwanda laboratories’ progress towards accreditation.
Since the launch of program in 2009, Sabin has been among the key persons who organized and facilitated the SLMTA workshops and conducted mentorship visits within the country. To date we have enrolled 6 cohorts of laboratories in SLMTA covering 88% of Rwanda’s public health referral and district laboratories, resulting in 170 SLMTAns, 23 facilitators, 32 mentors and 4 master. He undertook numerous improvement projects with his Rwanda teammates and transformed Rwanda’s laboratories, which now embraced SLMTA as the main driver for continuous quality improvement towards accreditation. His leadership and teamwork have created a vibrant awareness among laboratory managers. Rwanda has been recognized for its tremendous investment in developing quality assured laboratory networks, as published in a peer-reviewed journal. Our satellite laboratories have been ranked between 3 to 4 stars under the East African Public Health Laboratory Network (EAPHLN) project. His work has impact beyond Rwanda, having facilitated the SLMTA TOT in Cote d’Ivoire and initiated SLMTA workshops in Burundi in 2013. Sabin has a passion for laboratory quality improvement and deserves to become the SLMTA Hero.