How do Doctors stay up to date with what's happening in the health sector? What illnesses are on the rise? and how can they improve their treatments for patients? The Belize Medical and Dental Association holds an annual congress as a knowledge exchange and professional development forum. Jomarie Lanza stopped by the event this morning:
For Doctors, dentists and medical professionals, the learning never stops even after years of practice in their field. There needs to be a constant exchange of knowledge between them in order to keep up to standard with their care and treatment of emerging diseases and present health issues among patients. Today their 42nd Medical Congress commenced, and the Director Of Hospital Services told us why this event is of major importance to them.
Dr Jorge Polanco, Director of Hospital Services, Ministry of Health
"The importance of it is it is a momentous event, it is an opportunity whereby it serves as a platform for continued learning it really represents continued medical education, it is the opportunity for specialists that come from abroad and even local presenters to share information that we know directly specific to improve the quality of care that everybody provides within public and the private sector, general practitioners, nurses and specialists."
"A lot of the topics have to do with public health there are some related to radiation safety, some related to cardiovascular diseases and pregnancy, so it is wide, so we have a little for everybody, those in the public health system and those in the private sector and those within the institutional setting."
With up to 300 medical practitioners present, the event features presentations and discussions on a number of health concerns. The president of the Belize Medical & Dental Association spoke about the engagement of both local and international presenters.
Dr Perlita Aldana, President, Belize Medical & Dental Association
"I do believe we are well rounded here in Belize as well through the past years we have been having Belizean presenters with a lot of experience eon the ground on what they are doing here in Belize with our settings with what we have at home and how best we can resolve our problems but also with the knowledge that they bring from their trainings abroad and the presenters that come from abroad well they bring their views on the country that they come from and I just saw the presentation from PAHO and it was very much like what we expect to have done in our country as well. I think that today we will have presenters, we are having presenters from Belize and we are having from Cuba in a while and we also have some presenters from the US so it is a variety of presenters and we also have from Nicaragua."
And one of those presenters is the Ministry Of Health And Wellness's Maternal and Child Health technical advisor, Dr Natalia Largaespada Beer. Her area of focus has to do with the prevention of maternal deaths.
Dr Natalia Largaespada Beer, Maternal & Child health, TA, MOHW
"My presentation today focused on the trends in maternal mortality rate that have been decreasing throughout the years but had a sharp increase during the covid-19 period but we are doubling efforts to bring it back down to where we were before. Last year we had only one maternal death recorded which is very good, but this year we already have 2 maternal deaths we know that there are some factors like social determinants of health that have a great impact on the health of women and the outcome of a pregnancy that is not a disease just biological changes but we need to work more closely with communities and get the interventions focusing on prevention among women in reproductive age."
And this is just one of the major sectors in need of attention and more education within the medical field. These doctors will spend the next few days looking at how they can better improve other areas of care.
Dr. Ramon Yacab, Vice President, BMDA
"During the whole 3 days we are going to be having different educational sessions we have a line up of physician speakers coming in both nationally and recognized internationally, participating in different topics including maternal and child health which is essential for Belize, cancer, Non communicable diseases, communicable diseases and we are trying everything in terms of what we consider important for our national interest as Physicians and where we can have a role and impact."
