The 1st Cuba-Canada Symposium on Maternal-Child Health took place on March 25-26th, 2019 at the Convention Centre “Melia Varadero” in Matanzas-Varadero, Cuba. This 1st Symposium brought together researchers and clinicians from Cuba and Canada to discuss and learn about research innovations in women’s and children’s health.
Over the past few years, investigators within the Alliance for Human Development have engaged with our colleagues on several projects focused on improving maternal and infant health. The advancement of the maternal and infant health is the most important goal of Cuba. At the same time, Cuba is also working to explore the possibility of establishing a preconception intervention study at the national level which will be embedded in their primary healthcare and early education systems.
Participants from Canada:
Dr. Laurent Briollais – Scientist at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute and Associate Professor in Biostatistics at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto.
Dr. Cindy-Lee Dennis – Professor in the Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing and the Faculty of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto.
Dr. Shoo K. Lee – Scientific Director, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Institute of Human Development, Child and Youth Health.
Dr. Dan Farine – Head of Obstetrics at Mount Sinai Hospital; Head of Maternal/ Fetal Medicine at the University of Toronto.
Dr. Stephen Lye – Senior Investigator at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute of Sinai Health System where he is the ScotiaBank Scientist in Child and Adolescent Development and the Women’s Auxiliary Chair in Women’s and Infants’ Health Research; Executive Director of AHD.
Dr. Stephen Matthews – Professor of Physiology, Obstetrics and Gynaecology and Medicine at the University of Toronto and Director of Research at the Alliance for Human Development, Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Sinai Health System.
Dr. Wendy Whittle – Assistant Professor, Maternal-Fetal Medicine, Mount Sinai Hospital
Dr. Yeneir Vera-Research Associate at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute of Sinai Health System. Leader researcher of the Cuba-Canada collaboration initiatives: ‘Building Bridges to better health”.
Participants from Netherlands:
Prof. Dr. Tessa Roseboom- is a professor of Early Development and Health at the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands.