ArticleAfrican journal of laboratory medicine2023
Providing specimen transport through an online marketplace in the Northern region of Ghana.
Article in African journal of laboratory medicine, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Access barriers to in vitro diagnostics in Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, and the Philippines: programmatic lessons from NEDL field missions.Tropical medicine and health · 2026Article
- Implementing laboratory quality management systems in Ghana: A quality audit of accreditation readiness in clinical and public health laboratories (2021-2023).African journal of laboratory medicine · 2026Article
- Improving the specimen referral system in Ghana: findings from a landscape assessment.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Integrated diagnostic networks, which are themselves dependent on robust specimen transport solutions, are fundamental to effective healthcare systems. Objective: This study aimed to pilot an online marketplace for the transport of specimens throughout a laboratory network in Ghana. Methods: Independent drivers were matched with health facilities that required specimen transport using a suite of mobile applications and web portals developed for this study. This marketplace was piloted with seven drivers, two laboratories, and five health facilities in Ghana's Northern region from March 2019 to October 2019. Results: During the pilot, 182 deliveries were completed for 691 patients, including 4118 laboratory tests for antenatal care, disease surveillance, and clinical testing. Testing included 34 tests for communicable and non-communicable diseases. All but two specimens (laboratory cancellations) were successfully delivered and tested. The median time from request to encrypted emailing of results was 19.7 h, while that for a drop-off request was 0.9 h. In the midwife registry, the median time from patient visit to result recording was 1 day, compared to 4 days in the same months in 2018, and the number of mothers without documented testing decreased from 41 to 3. Similarly, the proportion of tuberculosis specimen deliveries from Buipe Polyclinic to Tamale Zonal Laboratory taking over 1 day fell from 62% at baseline to 3% during the pilot. Conclusion: An online marketplace successfully orchestrated the delivery of laboratory specimens under a variety of clinical circumstances, reducing overall turn-around time without diminution of the overall specimen delivery process. What this study adds: This study established the efficacy of an online marketplace to orchestrate timely and high-quality delivery of specimens within a laboratory network.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.