Belize Hosts 21st Annual Caribbean College of Surgeon Conference

Belize is hosting the Twenty-First Annual Caribbean College of Surgeons’ Scientific Conference. It is a first for the country. Over one hundred and twenty surgeons from across the Caribbean are in Belize for the three-day conference. The meeting was established as a networking platform for the region’s surgeons to share their knowledge and skills. Earlier this week, several of the medical professionals in attendance conducted a specialized surgery at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital free of cost to the hospital’s management.  Here is more from the conference.

Shamir Cawich

Dr. Shamir Cawich, President, Caribbean College of Presidents

“The Caribbean College of Surgeons is a professional association of all the surgeons in all subspecialties across the Caribbean and the way that this was conceptualized or the reason for which this was conceptualized was the fact that the English speaking Caribbean is made up of seventeen countries that are geographically separated by the Caribbean Sea. What you find is that a lot of these islands, because they are geographically separated with their own independent governments and health systems function independently in small isolated bodies and the purpose of the Caribbean college was to bring everybody together in unison so that we learn from each other, share resources and give support where it is necessary and in this way we can elevate the Caribbean as a whole rather than individual nations at different levels of progress in health care, in surgery in specific.”

Lisa Johnson

Dr. Lisa Johnson, General Surgeon

“I am the first female graduate at the University of the West Indies Doctor of Medicine Program in General Surgery. Being the first and I can remember applying to the program and hearing many different opinions about my decision to apply to the program. In fact there are one or two people in that room who had a number of things to say about when I first applied to the program. I will say I was given one single piece of advice by one of the surgeons who acted as a reference for my application. He said, you know the history and what has happened to other women who got into this program and did not complete it. He said, all I want to see is your absolute and total commitment to surgery. He likened almost to a marriage and he was not far off.”