August 11 - Dry Run at Mulago Hospital

On this day, we returned to Mulago and UCI, did a practice-run of the scanning and data-recording protocol with our Cytotechnologist team, and caught up with one of our study leads, Dr. Sam Kalungi.

We met Matovu and Boaz at the Mulago Pathology lab and headed up the hill to the Uganda Cancer Institute's slide scanner together. With Dr. Veronica's help, we practiced the scanning and data recording protocol while refining the data capture parameters. In the process, Dr. Veronica pointed out key cellular features that she looks for to determine malignancy like the lack of myoepithelial cells (the rugby-shaped cells that surround ducts). We also reviewed benign features like:

• cohesiveness

• round nuclei and lots of cytoplasm present

• presence of myoepithelial cells

• uniformly light nuclei

Slide box of breast FNA slides

After spending most of the day at the UCI, we returned to the Mulago Pathology department to catch up with Dr. Sam Kalungi. Dr. Kalungi is one of the leading and senior-most pathologists in Uganda. His time is precious for Ugandan health care and it is always meaningful when we get to meet with him. We discussed the whole-slide imaging protocol with Dr. Kalungi and some of the Uganda-wide developments in cancer care: each of the four new UCI satellite centers would house approximately 40 beds.

And with this day, our dedicated Mulago-based work time was at its end. We had an evening to recuperate before setting off for Mbarara, Uganda.