Caribbean Partnerships

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Capacity Building in Paediatric Oncology: Caribbean Partnership 

In April 2012, The Programme hosted a visit by a team from SickKids Hospital, Canada, Jamaica and Barbados.  This three day meeting was held to advance the proposed “Caribbean-Sickkids Paediatric Cancer and Blood Disorders Project”, which was started in 2010.
As part of this initiative, The UWI and SickKids Hospital, have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to facilitate governance issues related to this project.  The UWI Telehealth continues to play a significant role in facilitating ongoing collaboration among the partners.  The following two activities have occurred thus far:

1. Exchange of colleagues from Jamaica and Trinidad to SickKids, to facilitate training in  immunophenotyping and cytogenetics laboratory services. 

2. The first session of the Telemedicine Review Rounds (Monday November 12th, 8:00 am EST). This session was lead by Dr. Victor Blanchette, FRCP, Medical Director, Division of Haematology/Oncology at SickKids, Canada.

Dr. Blanchette presented a project update on “Partnering for paediatric haematology /oncology case management”.  Caribbean partners who participated in the review were Bahamas, Jamaica, Barbados, St. Lucia and St. Vincent. The collaborators from Trinidad, Professor Zulaika Ali and Dr. Curt Bodkyn, participated in a number of telephone conferences paving the way for the implementation of the project.  UWI Telehealth is viewed as the lead entity to move the project forward.  Telemedicine Case Review Round started in January 2013.