Anton Bussink

Member Bio

Having spent over a decade in the relative safety of research laboratories, I decided to change direction and followed a course in tropical medicine, with the aim of spending a few years working in developing countries. Subsequently, I went to Malawi, where I became in charge of the laboratory at St. Luke’s mission hospital. Despite a decrease in resources we managed to improve our testing considerably, in terms of repertoire of tests, numbers and quality. Further achievements at St. Luke’s hospital included the enrollment of the lab into an accreditation program (SLMTA), which should ensure future performance, and the development of a nutritional program.

Following my time in Malawi, I joined MSF and was deployed as a lab manager in Ethiopia, mostly in the east of the country. The main challenges here were security-related issues, logistics, training and management of staff and quality control, working closely together with authorities and the reference laboratory.
As I have become fully aware that laboratory services is one the areas where there is most to gain in improving health care, I recently started Tropical Medicine Laboratory Consultancy, an enterprise dedicated to developing infrastructure for diagnostics.
I am confident I have much to offer as a laboratory consultant: the combination of a PhD in medical biochemistry, theoretical knowledge of tropical medicine and experience as a field worker makes me, in my view, excellently suited for this line of work.
I am eager to go on another mission soon and am available at short notice. For any inquiries, please contact me at [email protected].