The Institute of Health Science Education (IHSE) was today called upon
to focus on research programmes that could provide equal opportunities
for health care across Guyana.
The call was made by Deputy Chief Medical Officer (DCMO) Dr. Karen
Gordon-Boyle, as she delivered opening remarks this morning at the
11th annual Guyana Medical Scientific Research Conference at the
Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC).
She said it is heartening to see that the institute is supporting
local research and challenged the medical practitioners in attendance
to learn how persons’ history and places of birth can limit their
ability to achieve optimal health.
Dr. Gordon-Boyle said the Ministry of Public Health has embraced the
“life course approach to health”, since it recognises that social,
geographic and cultural factors, throughout the life course, influence
adult health. She said a life course approach is being used in
research on social inequalities in health to investigate how
experiences and exposures at different stages accumulate and create
the social inequalities in morbidity and mortality observed in middle
and old age.
According to her, it has been observed across the administrative
regions, that there are epidemiological patterns of diseases that
reflect social inequalities.
“Why is it that a young man or woman in Region One was found to have
vastly higher rates of cholelithiasis [the formation of gallstones]
than their counterparts in another region. What is it they are being
exposed to there?”
She said these social inequalities and morbidity patterns are a stark
reminder that with the planning of health care delivery, “the human
being must be the person in mind”.
She also reminded the doctors of their Hippocratic Oath which includes
solidarity in the delivery of health services.
Director of the Institute of Health Science Education, Dr. Alexandra
Harvey said the conference is geared at carrying out research at the
local level so that Guyanese from all walks of life could benefit.
Since the last conference last year, she said the institute has
introduced various initiatives to promote the research aspect of its
mandate. She encouraged all doctors to “fly the flag of local
research”.
