Improving patient care

![Graphic][1] Last October at the ASCP Annual Meeting in Long Beach, Calif., ASCP announced a groundbreaking global initiative: Partners for Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment in Africa. This effort will provide patients in underserved areas of Sub-Saharan Africa with access to rapid anatomic pathology cancer diagnostics and appropriate care and treatment. The goal is to use digital slide technology and a cloud-based system to allow ASCP member pathologists to make histologic-based diagnoses of Sub-Saharan African patients, issue a report within 48 hours, and allow local providers to care for and treat the patients. Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) have become the leading cause of death in Sub-Saharan Africa. Increases in life expectancy, changes in diet and lifestyle, and a lower burden of communicable diseases promise to increase this cancer burden.1 Data from the … [1]: /embed/inline-graphic-1.gif