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The Barbados National Registry |
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 The Barbados National Registry for Chronic Non-Communicable Disease (BNR) is a national surveillance system being conducted by the Chronic Disease Research Centre on behalf of the Ministry of Health. The BNR is made up of 3 registries: BNR-Stroke, BNR-Heart and BNR-Cancer. Each registry collects data about new cases of cancer, stroke, and acute myocardial infarction (also known as a heart attack or cardiac arrest) and produces statistics concerning incidence, mortality, and survival. Information from the BNR is used to inform public health policy and clinical practice and is an important resource for Caribbean researchers investigating the problems of chronic disease.
The BNR is a unique initiative in the Caribbean. It is a Ministry of Health initiative being conducted by the Chronic Disease Research Centre of The University of the West Indies.
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Stroke Management Workshop 2012 |
Continuing Medical Education
On Wednesday 13 June 2012, the BNR held a stroke management workshop in the auditorium of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. This seminar was the latest installment in the BNR’s continuing medical education series. Attendees at the workshop were eligible for three continuing medical education credits from the Caribbean College of Family Physicians and three continuing professional education credits from the Barbados Medical Council.
The stroke workshop was very well attended with over 200 medical personnel participating. The first presenter was Prof. David Corbin, consultant neurologist at the QEH and Clinical Stroke Director of the BNR. Prof Corbin gave an overview of stroke medicine, spoke on how to recognize the various subtypes of stroke and discussed the importance of thrombolysis as the first treatment response for stroke victims.
Presentations were also made by Dr. Winston Batson of the Heart and Stroke Foundation (HSF) and Dr. Lynda Williams, Consultant/Trainer of the BNR. Dr. Batson spoke about the role of the Cardiac Rehabilitation Centre at the HSF; and Dr. Lynda Williams used examples from patient records to illustrate the importance of proper documentation to help physicians make accurate stroke diagnoses.
The panel discussion from the workshop yielded interesting comments and observations. Notably, the QEH has formulated a stroke management committee that plans to establish at specialized stroke unit at the hospital to improve the standard of care given to patients. Prof David Corbin and several other members of the committee, recently visited Trillium Health Centre, Ontario in Canada to observe how that centre’s stroke unit operated.
OTHER RELATED LINKS
Medical Professionals Attend Workshop on Stroke Management
Stroke numbers of major concern |
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The BNR attends UWI health fair – June 2012 |
Encouraging better dietary habits - one person at a time
For the second straight year the Barbados National Registry for Chronic Non-Communicable Disease (The BNR) participated in the University of the West Indies’ annual staff health fair which was held on Friday 8 June 2012 at the Cave Hill Campus. This year the BNR’s main goal was to impact the lives of individuals by encouraging them to make better dietary choices, since it is known that a healthy diet reduces the risk of developing diseases like diabetes and hypertension.
The BNR staff took commonly eaten foods and quantified the amount of salt and sugar contained in these items. They also weighed the recommended daily allowance of sugar and salt for men and women so that persons could compare these quantities with those found within the commonly eaten foods. The concept made a huge visual impact on persons, with visitors to the BNR table expressing shock at how much more than the recommended daily allowance of sugar and salt they were unknowingly consuming on a daily basis. The aim of the presentation was to get us to think about the combinations of foods we are eating and cut back on our daily sugar and salt intake.
In addition to this display, the BNR staff also performed blood pressure checks and calculated BMI for attendees of the health fair.
The Deputy Principal of the Campus, Prof. Eugene Barriteau, was very impressed with the BNR’s display and was photographed listening to BNR data abstractor, Theresa Downes’, presentation on the sugar and salt content of foods. The photograph made the cover page of the Sunday Advocate of 10 June 2012. Congratulations to the BNR staff on a job well done!
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