Ghanian Exchange Alumnus Leads Charge for Rapid Diagnostic Tests, Wins Award, Gets Praised by Pompeo

It’s not every day that the U.S. Secretary of State tweets about you. But it happened to Dr. Laud Basing, who recently led his team of medical scientists to develop a Rapid Diagnostic Test (RDT) for COVID 19 testing, in collaboration with the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.

Dr. Basing, a 2016 Mandela Washington Fellow for Young African Leaders (MWF), is a frontline medical worker who wanted to change the narrative on Africa as a scientific innovator and be one of the continent’s first indigenous companies to find solutions to its disease problems. He's accomplished both goals!

In addition to developing a rapid COVID-19 diagnostic test that is being used across Africa, Basing won first prize in Africa.com’s Brilliant African Innovations Against COVID-19 Competition for his test kit, which includes "a comprehensive app that incorporates symptom assessment, data capture of test results, tracking of patient location using GPS signals, and dissemination of all of this information to public health authorities."

Congrats, Dr. Basing!

Exchange alumni, share your stories by using #ExchangeAlumni, like Dr. Basing. You never know who will retweet your post!