?? |
| Minister of Health, Donville Inniss (FP)?? |
Minister of Health, Donville Inniss, has challenged persons in the area of medical sciences research to work closely with his Ministry and to link their findings to policy development.
He was speaking today at the 12th Annual Professor E.R. Walrond Scientific Symposium, which was held in the auditorium of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Martindales Road, St. Michael.
According to Mr. Inniss, research was extremely vital to the field of health as the technologies and therapies that are associated with the delivery of modern health services have their origins in research.
"Investing in research to improve health care must therefore be sustained and must build upon current success.?? I believe that only through such investment in our outstanding research talent that we can generate the sound evidence and exciting innovations upon which improvements to health can be based.
"Therefore I cannot emphasise enough the need for the strategic collaborative partnership between the University of the West Indies and the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in conducting these research symposia which encourage research in the first place and offer researchers the opportunity to present their work and their findings to their peers and to receive crucial feedback," he advised.
The Minister further spoke to Government’s commitment to "tackling disease prevention", noting that his Ministry had recently revisited a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to formally establish a working relationship with the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, the University of the West Indies’ Faculty of Medical Science and the Ministry of Education.??
"The MOU is critical to the Barbados Government’s relationship with the UWI and the QEH as a teaching facility as well as an essential pre-requisite for the acquisition of accreditation status by the UWI’s Faculty of Medicine," Mr. Inniss explained.
Minister Inniss also congratulated Professor Walrond for his "yeoman service to academia, to medicine and to the community".