At a glance
- The Lab Assessment of Antibiotic Resistance Testing Capacity (LAARC) is a laboratory assessment tool for use in clinical bacteriology laboratories in low- and middle-income countries.
- It was developed in 2017 and piloted in numerous resource-limited settings.
Purpose
The Lab Assessment of Antibiotic Resistance Testing Capacity (LAARC) toolkit helps laboratories identify and correct laboratory practices that contribute to inaccurate antimicrobial resistance (AR) data.
Use LAARC for:
- Self-assessment of technical deficiencies.
- Facilitating a standardized external assessment of AR laboratory networks.
LAARC materials
- LAARC User's Guide and Questionnaire
The Excel-based scoring tool:
- Is available in English, French, Spanish and Portuguese.
- Generates numerical indicators of quality and capacity in fifteen domains of laboratory practice.
- Provides detailed real-time heatmaps for immediate visualization of problem areas.
- Flags key responses that require urgent correction.
- Aids development of workplans for improvement.
- Can be used to monitor the status of laboratory improvements over time.
- Allows data to be exported and collated for comparative analysis of multiple laboratories.
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