FAMACs

FAMACs is a color-based hematology assessment used primarily in low-resource settings to provide a rapid, approximate estimate of a patient’s hemoglobin level by comparing a prepared blood smear to a standardized color scale. The method, often referred to as the FAMACs approach, is designed to be simple and field-friendly, enabling clinicians in malaria-endemic and other resource-limited areas to gauge anemia severity without requiring full laboratory equipment.

Procedure and interpretation are straightforward: after staining a thin blood smear with a routine stain such as Giemsa or Wright, a clinician assesses the overall coloration of red blood cells and matches it to a card or scale that represents different anemia levels. The color match is used to assign the patient to a broad hemoglobin range (for example, higher or lower categories rather than an exact value). This provides a quick, actionable estimate that can inform immediate clinical decisions, such as prioritizing care or planning transfusion when appropriate, and it can be used at the point of care in community clinics or outreach campaigns.

Applications of FAMACs include screening for anemia in population health programs, guiding treatment decisions in acute settings, and supporting malaria control efforts by contextualizing disease burden where laboratory testing is limited. However, the method has limitations: it is subjective and dependent on stain quality, slide preparation, and observer experience. It should not replace laboratory hematology for precise measurements or for monitoring subtle changes over time.

See also: hemoglobin color scale, malaria microscopy, anemia assessment.