KNOX HAGLEY MEMORIAL LECTURE
ANNUAL MEDICAL SYMPOSIUM
In keeping with our objective of “Promoting Heart Health in Jamaica”, The Heart Foundation of Jamaica hosted another successful annual medical symposium with over seventy (70) medical practitioners. Our symposium theme was “Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease” and it was held at the Terra Nova All-Suite Hotel, in Kingston on the 4th of March 2020.
We were honoured to have Dr. Ivor Benjamin Ivor J. Benjamin, M.D., FAHA who is now the 2018-19 president of the American Heart Association (AHA) as our keynote speaker. Dr. Ivor J. Benjamin presented on “Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease” and “Caring for the Future”. Dr. Benjamin is the director of the Cardiovascular Center at the Medical College of Wisconsin.
Dr. Benjamin is the chairperson of the AHA Research Committee and a member of its Board of Directors, Corporate Operations Coordinating Committee, Executive Committee, International Committee, and Science & Advisory Coordinating Committee. He is also a longtime member of the association’s Council on Basic Cardiovascular Sciences and Council on Clinical Cardiology.
Dr. Benjamin’s presentation was aimed at offering strategies for screening, prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease, and the methodology of caring for the future through his work and experience.
Dr. Benjamin’s presentation was followed by Dr. Trevor Ferguson, MBBS, DM, MSc, DLSHTM, FACP, FRCP Edin, who gave a detailed and informative presentation on “Sodium and Cardiovascular Disease: Individual and Population Strategies for Reducing Salt Consumption”. Dr. Ferguson is a Senior Lecturer at the Epidemiology Research Unit, Caribbean Institute for Health Research (CAIHR), The University of the West Indies, Mona and Honorary Consultant in General Internal Medicine for the Department of Medicine, University Hospital of the West Indies.
Dr. Ferguson’s presentation included updated information concerning the current guidelines for hypertension treatment. He spoke on the risk factors for high blood pressure which includes age, race, obesity, family history, use of tobacco, high intake of salt and lower intake of potassium, stress, and certain chronic conditions. Both Dr. Ferguson’s and Dr. Benjamin’s presentations were well received from the medical practitioners that were in attendance.