(L-R) Dr. David Walcott – Founder & Managing Partner; Mr. Kirk Anthony Hamilton – Founding Partner (Novamed) and Professor Trevor McCartney, Deputy Dean, Faculty of Medical Sciences; Professor Dale Webber, Pro Vice-Chancellor & Principal, UWI, Mona.

The Faculty of Medical Sciences (FMS), at The University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Novamed Inc., a company that drives healthcare venture and innovation, founded by Dr. David Walcott, a Rhodes Scholar and First Class Honors Degree graduate of the MBBS Class of 2010.

The MOU supports collaboration for the development of a comprehensive and efficient learning ecosystem for the Faculty to drive improved outcomes for students.  It will take on curriculum review and look at new strategies for student engagement and development.  Dean of the Faculty, Dr. Tomlin Paul, expressed his delight to have this academic-industry partnership with a company run by one of the Faculty’s graduates.  This he added, fits within the FMS’ strategy to promote alumni engagement and at the same time to engage private sector in the Faculty’s operations. 

Dr Paul also highlighted that the collaboration will see the Faculty working on strategies to improve the performance of students in the United States Medical Licensing Examinations (USMLE) which is significantly important for the strategic growth of the medical training programme. Broader post-medical school opportunities, enhancement of collaborative learning across health profession programmes and an improvement in The UWI’s ability to meet the requirements of the US Title IV, Higher Education Act are among the benefits to be derived from this partnership.

Dr. Walcott along with his business partner is excited for this opportunity stating that this partnership will be valuable in contributing to the longstanding legacy of training medical students of The University of the West Indies as a beacon of progress and “are both happy to see and support the evolution of the regional medical educational system in their mandate to meet the health care needs of the public and to function in emerging modes of health care delivery”.

Novamed has also partnered with The UWI through supporting research done by the institution to augment COVID-19 testing efforts at the University Hospital of the West Indies through pool-testing.

As a gesture of goodwill and an initiation of the collaboration, Novamed donated 2000 masks to support personal protective equipment (PPE) coverage for students of the FMS and commit to providing continued support in response to the pandemic. The Faculty looks forward to the successful outcome of this partnership.