George Alleyne Chronic Disease Research Centre

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Prof Mark Woodward

Honorary professor at The University of the West Indies

The GACDRC is pleased to welcome Prof Mark Woodward to the Centre for the period October 2022 to January 2023. While at the GACDRC, Prof Woodward will be collaborating on various studies as well as providing statistical support as needed.

Mark Woodward is Professor of Medical Statistics at the University of New South Wales, Chair of Statistics, Epidemiology and Women’s Health at Imperial College London, Senior Visiting Research Fellow of Green Templeton College, Oxford University and Honorary Professor at the universities of Dundee, Mahidol (Thailand) and the West Indies. He is based at The George Institute for Global Health. Mark is the author of over 800 peer-reviewed publications and two text-books on statistical methods in medical research. Mark served on the governing council of the Institute of Statisticians and the Royal Statistical Society (RSS) and is also a fellow of the European Society of Cardiology, the New York Academy of Medicine, and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Physicians of Thailand. He has wide experience of development aid work in Africa and Asia, having undertaken 25 missions for aid agencies, such as the WHO. His favourite pastime is watching cricket.

History

The Chronic Disease Research Centre (CDRC) was founded by the School of Clinical Medicine and Research, UWI, Cave Hill Campus, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, Government of Barbados, in response to the epidemic of chronic diseases (hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, cancer and their complications) in the Caribbean. The foundation years (1992 – 1999) were funded by donations raised by appeals and grants through Professor Henry Fraser. Oversight was provided by an Advisory Committee comprising national and UWI stakeholders.

On 1 August 2000, the CDRC was formally incorporated into the trans-national Tropical Medicine Research Institute (TMRI), now the Caribbean Institute for Health Research, based out of UWI Centre in Mona, Kingston, Jamaica. The GACDRC reports to the UWI Vice Chancellor through the Director, CAIHR and to the Pro-Vice Chancellor for Graduate Studies and Research. It also maintains a functional collaboration with the School of Clinical Medicine and Research at Cave Hill, Barbados.

Edmund Cohen Vascular Research Laboratory

The Edmund Cohen Vascular Research Laboratory at the GACDRC was officially opened on March 30th 2004 and continues to be supported by the Cohen family. The laboratory has a long history of multi-centre collaborations as part of international cohort studies such as the Hyperglycemia and Adverse Pregnancy Outcome Follow-up Study (HAPO FUS), Barbados Asthma Genetic Study (BAGS) and the Consortium on Asthma among African-ancestry Populations in the Americas (CAAPA) study.

Founded by Prof. Clive Landis (now Principal of the Cave Hill campus) and currently headed by Dr. André Greenidge, the Laboratory has an established model for inflammation and wound healing in diabetes and in recovery from surgery. The next phase of growth includes the establishment of biobanking facilities that archives biological material for valuable future and ongoing research. The laboratory continues to participate in collaborations and studies requiring biological samples for molecular marker characterization, metabolite study, genetic and multi-omic analyses.

Barbados National Registry

The GACDRC operates the Barbados National Registry for Chronic Non-communicable Disease (BNR), national disease surveillance programmes for Stroke (2008), Heart Attack (2009), and Cancer (2010) on behalf of the Ministry of Health, Government of Barbados. The expertise of the GACDRC was again recognised and utilised at the Civil society-led conference titled “Healthy Caribbean 2008 – A Wellness Revolution” that arose directly from the Summit, when the GACDRC produced a Technical Report of the conference ‘CDRC Healthy Caribbean Report’.

Visit the Registry online

http://www.bnr.org.bb/cms/
https://www.facebook.com/people/Barbados-National-Registry-for-Chronic-NCDs/100057209570073/