Key Staff

Linda Oskam, PhD, has 30 years laboratory experience, of which 24 years focusing on the worldwide improvement of laboratory services. She has a strong interest in policy and planning, quality management, health systems management and public health. Her passion is the integration of laboratory services into the general health system, also from a One Health perspective.

Linda Oskam is a senior advisor for laboratories, control programmes, NGOs, governments and international organizations on diagnostic laboratory services at all levels of the health care system. She has conducted numerous short-term advisory missions on almost all continents, which included setting-up, organizing, staffing, managing and evaluating diagnostic laboratories and laboratory networks, including the integration of these facilities into the public health system. She also has given training on laboratory quality management and facilitated workshops on policy and strategic plan development.

Tjeerd Datema, PhD, advises laboratories, governments and international organizations worldwide on laboratory quality improvement at all levels of the health care system. He is a certified internal auditor for ISO 15189 and ISO 9001 and has served as deputy quality officer of the WHO/FAO/OIE International Leptospirosis Reference Laboratory in the Netherlands. He is the main developer of the WHO LQSI tool which assists medical laboratories with implementation of an ISO 15189 quality management system.

Tjeerd has world-wide experience in capacity building through provision of training in laboratory quality management, guidance of individual laboratories with implementation of a quality management system in accordance with international quality standards, and performing laboratory audits. At laboratory systems level he has conducted laboratory network assessments to advice national governments on laboratory network optimization in view of global health security and he has co-facilitated workshops on national laboratory policy development.

Dorien Faber, MSc, is an advisor in laboratory strenghtening. She advices medical laboratories, governments and international organizations worldwide on laboratory strenghtening. Dorien Faber combines a technical laboratory background with public health experience. She has worked several years in Central America where she performed epidemiological field studies in turbulent circumstances. She played a key role in various aspects of several research projects, including designing studies, assuring funding, coordination with several international stakeholders, coordination of data collection campaigns in hostile environments, assuring data quality and presenting research results on international conferences.

The experience in Central America has opened her eyes to the importance of well functioning laboratories in both clinical patient care and public health. This has sparked her interest to dedicate herself on improvement of laboratory services in low- and middle income countries. She has recently joined the DATOS team, where she uses her experience and connections to build on existing projects and expand services in Latin America.

Internships and literature studies

DATOS experts, having a scientific background, have a strong interest in performing research to contribute to the evidence base underlying laboratory strengthening strategies. We always have interesting research questions available for internships and literature studies. We’re also happy to hear about your ideas and to think along. If you have a good idea for research in the field of laboratory (systems) strengthening yourself, don’t hesitate to share it with us. Contact us through email!