The Epidemiology Research Unit (ERU) in the Tropical Medicine Research Institute (TMRI), UWI and colleagues from the Faculties of Medical Sciences and Social Sciences and the Centre for Gender and Development Studies of the UWI, have been admitted to the International Clinical Epidemiology Network (INCLEN) as a Clinical Epidemiology Unit (CEU) of the Canada/ USA International Clinical Epidemiology Network (CanUSACLEN) branch of INCLEN.  

The launch of the UWI-CEU places the UWI among seven (7) regional networks and eighty-two (82) Clinical Epidemiology Units in twenty (24) countries. This will enhance opportunities for the Caribbean to advance the development of its human resources and increase capacity in health research and leadership training in the region.

INCLEN, established in 1980 in the USA aims to help clinicians and other scientists obtain the knowledge and tools to improve the health of people in the developing world

Noting that INCLEN has a membership comprising 64 medical institutions and partnerships with major universities like the University of Ottawa, Harvard, Johns Hopkins,  McMaster and others all over the world including China, India, Colombia, Spain and France, Professor Rainford Wilks, Director of the ERU, said that “the UWI-CEU will benefit from INCLEN’s carefully designed training and other support which will help in the assessment of the factors that determine the most effective prevention and treatment strategies”.

Professor Wilks added that INCLEN provides a forum for researchers to discuss critical health issues through educational programmes, global meetings and an international communications network and supports young researchers while providing opportunities for participation in collaborative clinical studies.

The ERU can be credited for research in child development that has earned the Unit an international reputation for investigating and proving several concepts and principles in the management of the perturbations of child development due to under-nutrition.  The results of these studies now provide a benchmark for the management of child development in poor countries around the world.  At present the ERU is the repository of the most current data on the burden of cardiovascular disease risk in the region having carried out important sequential national surveys on this subject.  It is intended that this research will result in testable interventions to ameliorate the epidemic of chronic non-communicable disease in the region and in countries at a similar stage of development.