Sunday Times 2
Commonwealth SG discusses health initiatives for the region with CMA President
View(s):The Secretary General of the Commonwealth, Baroness Patricia Scotland, held wide-ranging discussions with the newly-elected President of the Commonwealth Medical Association (CMA), Prof. Vajira H.W. Dissanayake on how the Commonwealth Secretariat could support the proposed Commonwealth Institute for Digital Health in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
The institute is to be launched at the Commonwealth Health Ministers Meeting on May 21 in Geneva by Health Minister Dr. Rajitha Senaratne and Science, Technology and Research Minister Susil Premajayantha. This would be followed by a high-level launch of the institute in London, Britain, during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in April 2018, by President Maithripala Sirisena.
Prof. Vajira H.W. Dissanayake with Baroness Patricia Scotland
During the meeting with Prof. Dissanayake at the Commonwealth Secretariat at Marlborough House in London, on March 24, Baroness Scotland also discussed how the institute could serve as a training, research and innovation hub for the Commonwealth, bringing about transformative change across health systems in the Commonwealth.
The CMA proposed the setting up of the institute as a health care innovation initiative with the backing of Sri Lanka’s two Ministries of Health and Science, Technology and Research and Baroness Scotland praised the Government of Sri Lanka for supporting the initiative.
While thanking Sri Lanka, the Sri Lanka Medical Association and the Health Informatics Society of Sri Lanka for hosting CMA’s highly successful 24th Triennial Conference in October 2016 in Sri Lanka, she pledged her support to take forward the Colombo Declaration.
The declaration was adopted at the conference by the Commonwealth Health Professionals Alliance consisting of Commonwealth Associations representing doctors, nurses, midwives, pharmacists, dentists and other healthcare professionals.
The Deputy Secretary-General of the Commonwealth and former Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative of Kenya to the United Nations, Dr. Josephine Ojiambo; the Head of the Health and Education Unit of the Commonwealth Secretariat Dr. Joanna Nurse; the Acting Chairperson of the Commonwealth Institute for Infrastructure Development, Anoop Singh; and Immediate Past President of the World Medical Association, Prof. Sir Michael Marmot also participated in the
discussions.