KINGSTON, Jamaica — The Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) will host its 70th Annual Health Research Conference from April 22 to 24 in Guyana, bringing together regional and international experts to discuss innovations in health.

Executive Director of CARPHA, Dr Lisa Indar, said the conference is the longest-standing English-speaking health research conference in the Caribbean and will feature a number of new elements this year.

According to Indar, the event will include 12 featured speakers from major international institutions.

“For the first time, we have 12 feature speakers from Mount Sinai and Harvard University, as well as the UKHSA (United Kingdom Health Security Agency) and Pandemic Fund and so on. So we have experts from all over the world,” she said.

She also noted that the conference will introduce a ministerial panel, with several Caribbean health ministers expected to participate.

“We hope to have the [health] minister of Jamaica there, but we have confirmed the minister of health from Belize and from Grenada and of course Guyana and others. So they are going to be talking about innovations,” Indar explained.

The theme of the conference will focus on innovations in health, which she said is particularly timely as new technologies continue to reshape the global health landscape.

“With the way the world is going now with many, many changes in terms of AI (artificial intelligence) and other technologies, we wanted to know what are the innovations in health,” she said.

Indar added that the forum will also highlight work being done across the region and internationally.

More than 200 research papers have been accepted for presentation during the conference, which she described as one of the largest programmes in the event’s history.

The Government of Guyana has also been working closely with CARPHA to organise the event, she noted.

Indar encouraged researchers, health professionals and students across the region to register for the conference.

“We really want each person to go into our CARPHA website, [www.carpha.org] and to register because it’s going fast,” she said.

She described the event as a platform for translating research into practical solutions and policy for the region.

“To me, this is the forum where we are able to change the world through research… so that we can come up with innovations that are currently happening, happening in Jamaica, happening in Guyana, what CARPHA is doing, what the world is doing,” she said.

Registration for the conference opened last year, with early registration set to end on March 20.

Participants will also be able to register up to the week of the conference, with special rates available for university students and early career researchers.