Four University of the West Indies students have taken bold steps into the future of healthcare, using technology and innovation to make their mark far beyond Barbados.
The quartet have been given an opportunity to gain hands-on experience in the global health technology industry through the recently concluded Health Tech Fellows Programme (HTFP), co-designed and executed by FutureHEALTH and the University of the West Indies (UWI).
The initiative is being hailed as a major success in positioning Barbados as an emerging hub for health innovation.
As part of the HTFP, developed under the FutureHEALTH initiative, UWI students Daemon Dawson, Jahniqua Esdaille, Jaliea Lovell and Tarika Birch completed six-week placements at leading health technology companies in the United Kingdom and Europe. During their internships, they were exposed to work in digital health, artificial intelligence, medical devices and health systems innovation.
Jahniqua Esdaille (GP).
Jaliea Lovell (GP).
Tarika Birch (GP).
Dr Kia Lewis, community activator for FutureHEALTH, said the initiative, co-funded by FutureBARBADOS and the IDB Lab, was created to strengthen the health tech ecosystem in Barbados and the wider Caribbean. “The whole aim of the initiative is to help to build or develop the health tech ecosystem in Barbados, given the dire need for health innovation not just in Barbados but in the wider Caribbean,” she said.
Dr Lewis explained that the HTFP’s success reflects a growing collaboration between academia and industry. “We are working very closely with the University of the West Indies, and so the Health Tech Fellows Programme would have fallen under Future Health Communities. We’re doing things like integrating health technology into one of their introductory computer science courses.”
Project coordinator for FutureHEALTH, Joycelyn Alleyne, said the programme was designed to develop new talent, foster innovation and position Barbados as a hub for health technology: “Our four main objectives when we were building out the Health Tech Fellows Programme was one, to look for a new way to try to develop the health tech talent in Barbados by providing students with global exposure.
“The second one was really making sure that we provide an opportunity to immerse the students in high-growth health tech environments, which aren’t as frequent for them to have those types of experiences in the Caribbean or in Barbados as we know, equipping them with the critical industry skills that are needed to be able to build this out.
“Thirdly, we also wanted to encourage innovation and knowledge transfer. And the fourth is about positioning Barbados as an emerging hub for health tech by making sure that we can cultivate a pipeline for skilled professionals and establishing a local health tech innovation culture with global partners.”
The students were placed in companies in Bristol, London and Germany, where they engaged with international professionals and contributed to live projects.
Dawson, who worked at Wanda Health in Bristol, described his placement as transformative. “My internship was an incredible learning journey,” he said. “I worked on projects related to cardiometabolic diseases, research, and gained exposure to the business and sales aspects behind healthcare. The mentorship and support from the team really stood out. Everyone was approachable, eager to teach, and genuinely invested in my growth.”
Birch, who was assigned to FluoretiQ in Bristol, said she was inspired by the collaborative spirit she witnessed: “I had the opportunity to witness health tech innovation on a global scale. What stood out to me most during my placement was experiencing the entire process of health technology development from concept and research to product creation, witnessing how professionals from diverse fields like health, machine learning, marketing and business collaborated to build something truly impactful.”
Esdaille, who worked at NeuroVirt Limited in London, said the experience expanded her technical and professional capabilities: “They are a health tech start-up that aims to gamify the physical rehabilitation process through augmented reality. From this experience, I was able to go from a back-end developer to a full-stack developer and I learned so much about what it requires to have a successful business in health tech.”
Lovell, who completed her placement in Germany, said she was inspired by the diversity and inclusivity of the organisation: “The experience at my placement was nothing short of inspiring. From day one, I was welcomed into a culture that thrives on curiosity, collaboration and genuine respect for diversity. It’s a company that brings together individuals from all over the world, so connecting across cultures and disciplines felt natural and encouraged.”
Dr Lewis said the fellows’ achievements demonstrated the potential of young Caribbean talent in advancing the island’s health innovation goals.
She said: “We were able to send four students in this iteration overseas to health tech companies — two of them in Bristol, one in London, and one in Germany. It was a six-week stay, fully sponsored and fully funded, where they were able to intern and work along with professionals. They generated individual reports at the end with their learnings and the plan is to find opportunities for them to transfer this knowledge to build solutions here locally.”
(SZB)
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