US Ambassador to Open UTech Diabetes Conference

KINGSTON — United States Ambassador to Jamaica, Her Excellency Pamella Bridgewater, will officially open the University of Technology’s (UTech) 18th annual diabetes conference, scheduled for March 29 to April 1, 2012.

The conference, to be held at the Sunset Jamaica Grande Hotel, Ocho Rios, St. Ann, will be staged through the University Diabetes Outreach Programme (UDOP) under the theme: ‘New Frontiers in Diabetes Management’.  

Co-Chairman of UDOP, and Adjunct Associate Professor of Occupational Health Service at UTech’s School of Public Health and Technology, Dr. Alverston Bailey, said the three-day conference will feature three distinguished lectures and 12 scientific sessions.

The scheduled lectures are: the Sir Allister McIntyre Distinguished Lecture to be delivered by university professor, Dr. Bryan Bernal, who will speak on the topic: ‘Integrated Practices for Diabetes Management’; the Sir Phillip Sherlock Distinguished Lecture, to be given by Executive Chairman, Environmental Health Foundation,

Dr. Henry Lowe, on nutraceuticals in medicine; while Head of Community Health and Psychiatry, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of the West Indies (UWI),

Dr. Denise Eldemire Shearer, will deliver the Hugh Lawson Shearer Distinguished Lecture on the topic: ‘Diabetes and the Aging Population’.

Dr. Bailey advised that the scientific sessions will cover a wide range of areas on diabetes. These include: integrated medicines; spirituality and health; nutraceuticals and diabetes; hormone replacement therapy in women with diabetes; and new technologies dealing with diabetes.

UDOP aims to promote research and enhanced education on diabetes, through community outreach programmes.

By Douglas McIntosh, JIS Reporter