Pres. Ali urges stronger systems to turn Caribbean health innovation into action

President Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali challenged CARICOM leaders to treat the region’s small population and ethnic diversity as an asset by positioning the Caribbean Community as a pilot site and platform for cutting‑edge health research, technology and telemedicine

Addressing the opening of the 70th Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) Annual Health Research Conference at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC) on Wednesday, President Ali said the region is rich in innovative health ideas but held back by weak regulation, financing gaps, workforce shortages and low trust in institutions.

The three-day conference, themed “Innovations in Health,” marks 70 years since CARPHA’s flagship research gathering was held in 1956. It is the longest health research conference in the English-speaking Caribbean.

President Ali said that in today’s world, health innovation depends less on laboratories and more on the strength of health ministries, procurement systems, rural clinics and community settings, and urged governments to invest in these foundations so that research and new technologies can be scaled into population‑wide programmes.

“We should be sharing, building common platforms, building common systems. That is what we should be doing as a region,” the president said.

He called on the conference to produce a document for heads of government outlining how the Caribbean can become a recognised pilot site for new health technologies and research.

“With the political will, we can fix this in a day. The models are all there. We can gather all of the best lawyers in the region, parliamentary councils, and match them with regulators and come up with one master legislation that the region can implement as a whole.”

President Ali outlined 10 interlocking challenges that, he said, define the global struggle to ensure innovation truly serves health equity, including scaling pilots into national systems, bridging the digital divide, modernising regulation, correcting inequalities in research funding, stabilising health financing, and closing the human capital gap in the sector.

Warning that the pace of technological change is already outstripping the capacity of regional regulators, he said: “If the solution runs too far ahead of the regulator because of the ineffectiveness of the system to respond quickly, then the population will be ahead of you. And that is a complete collapse of a healthcare system.”

Deeper regional cooperation, he stressed, must therefore include stronger joint procurement systems, shared medical manufacturing, coordinated disease surveillance, joint training and research platforms, and regional emergency readiness, with links extending beyond CARICOM to partners in Africa, Latin America and Asia.

Against this backdrop, President Ali announced that Guyana is ready “to partner with the rest of the region in creating a telemedicine hub here in Guyana to support the rest of the region, whether it’s for clinical care, research or educational purposes.”

Minister of Health, Dr Frank Anthony, also addressed the event alongside CARPHA’s Executive Director, Dr Lisa Indar; Assistant Director of the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO), Dr Rhonda Sealey-Thomas; Secretary-General of CARICOM, Dr Carla Barnett, among others.

The 70th CARPHA Annual Health Research Conference continues until April 24, bringing together researchers, policymakers and international experts, including featured speakers from Mount Sinai, Harvard University, the United Kingdom Health Security Agency, and the Pandemic Fund. [DPI]