A new partnership involving the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and three medical universities could strengthen digital health services, research training and clinical education, hospital and university officials have said.
The partnership involves the University of the West Indies (UWI) and two private universities, the American University of Barbados (AUB) and Era University in Lucknow in northern India, which signed a memorandum of understanding on Tuesday.
Head of QEH paediatrics Dr Kandamaran Krishnamurthy said the collaboration could take research skills to another level and support training for junior doctors, medical students and residents.
“It’s a useful first step for the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. It’s going to lift up the research skill [to] a different level and… the training happening for the junior doctors, medical students, residents, and we should expand to our nursing staff as well. There’s a collaborative effort for healthcare staff in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, there’s stimulation, and digital health will be much [more] useful.”
AUB dean Dr Syed Kazmi explained that it had been in the works for a long time.
“We both are fully accredited institutions in Barbados, and we really wanted to collaborate in different sections, and that’s why we invited them to come to our associate concern in India, Lucknow Era University, and they visited that place recently, and they saw… what different things we are doing there. We are having a postgraduate institute there, a medical school, a nursing institute and hospital, which is a 100-bed hospital.”
Dr Kazmi also spoke about the data collected from the hospital’s patients and its potential to support research.
“Vast data was present there, and we wanted to see how we can collaborate on this side. We are having an MD programme, and for two years we are doing in Barbados, and the remaining two years we do… clinical rotations in the United States and in Guyana.”
The collaboration would also give students additional clinical experience through rotations in the United States, Guyana and India.
Work was already underway on a medical education programme involving academics from Era University, AUB and UWI, said Dr Kazmi.
He said research was another major area of focus, with AUB and Era University already collaborating in the area.
Dr Kazmi said the collaboration had also increased opportunities for students and faculty to become involved in research.
“As soon as we started collaborating with Era University, we were already having a lot of research students involved in it, and our students were doing research in the USA also, but with this addition, it helped everybody, and our faculty has also increased research in this field.”
Dr Kazmi said AUB’s community clinic was another way the university was giving back to the community.
He said the clinic operates daily from 9 am to 2 pm with three doctors providing family medicine services.
According to Dr Kazmi, the clinic initially attracted people in the surrounding area but now sees patients from further afield.
He said the clinic sees between 15 and 20 patients daily, with plans to introduce laboratory investigations and other services, which he expects will increase patient numbers.
Dr Kazmi also highlighted AUB’s collaboration with the Ministry of Health, including a recent donation of digital stethoscopes.
He explained that the technology lets a patient use the stethoscope at home while a doctor elsewhere monitors what is happening and provides guidance remotely.
He said AUB also wanted to continue working with the QEH and UWI to advance healthcare through technology and other areas.
The clinic, located on the AUB campus, treats patients with common conditions, including high blood pressure and diabetes.
Dr Kazmi said the clinic recently increased its number of doctors as part of efforts to expand its services.
AUB, a private medical school with its main campus in Wildey, opened in January 2012 as the first offshore private medical school in Barbados. It began operations as a branch of Era’s Lucknow Medical College and Hospital, based in Lucknow, the capital of the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.
(LG)
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