The University of the West Indies presented the first Sports Physiotherapists produced in the West Indies at their graduation ceremony in November 2013. This represents the first post graduate degree in physiotherapy produced by the UWI. The Masters in Sports and Exercise Medicine – Physiotherapy is offered through collaboration by the Division of Sports Medicine and Section of Physiotherapy at UWI Mona, and complements the Masters of Sports Medicine Programme for Physicians which has been producing Sports Medicine Physicians at UWI Mona for some time.
 
The first set of six graduates included two each from Jamaica and Guyana and one each from Bahamas and the Cayman Islands. The graduates are, Ariane Mangar (Guyana), Marcia Swyer-Forbes (Jamaica), Matthew Parchment (Jamaica) Beverly Nelson (Guyana), Kereen Sherwood (Bahamas), Damion Martin (Cayman Islands). Marcia Swyer Forbes proudly pointed out “I was in the first ever class of Physiotherapists who graduated in 1972, and now am in the first set of postgraduate physiotherapists. I felt proud going up for the degree”. Matthew Parchment the other Jamaican is currently the Sports Physiotherapist at the UWI Sports Medicine Clinic. “Having played football for UWI and studied physiotherapy, I always wanted to specialize in Sports Physiotherapy. Having completed the course I now realize how much more involved and focused it is from general physiotherapy” said Jamaica’s Team Physiotherapist at the recent World Athletics Championship in Moscow.
 
The Master in Sports Medicine programmes at UWI have been producing Sports Medicine Specialists for the entire region, with doctors and physiotherapists from Antigua, Bahamas, Barbados, Cayman Islands, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago. “The high level of athletes that this region possesses needs to be matched with medical specialists as well. It has been a task explaining that Sports Medicine Physicians and Sports Physiotherapists are specialists who have furthered their studies in this rapidly expanding area. Luckily the caliber of our graduates from the Sports Medicine Programmes have distinguished themselves regionally and internationally and made this task much easier” said Dr. Akshai Mansingh, Director of the UWI Sports Medicine Programmes.
 
Photo Caption: Ariane Mangar (Guyana), Marcia Swyer-Forbes (Jamaica), Matthew Parchment (Jamaica)