Departments

Immunology

The mission of the department of immunology is to discover new mechanisms and pathways of the immune system to enrich human health by combating and preventing disease, enhancing vaccination and controlling autoimmunity.

Our research focuses on understanding autoimmune arthritis and other connective tissue diseases as well as the immune response to infectious diseases.

Epidemiology

The department of epidemiology focuses on the study of frequency & distribution of diseases and health conditions and the underlying determinants of health. Special interests are targeted towards inequities, socio-cultural patterns, and modifying lifestyle on a community basis, but research is also directed towards the delivery of health services and further developing health systems to meet the demands of the population.

The department aims to build information systems to be able to collect relevant data for analysis to underpin informed decision making for policy makers in government as well as in health institutions and the community at large. Aside from the ongoing basic data collection, specific research projects will also be conducted into areas of interest.
The department has a broad orientation including communicable disease epidemiology and early warning systems as called for by the International Health Regulations as also non-communicable diseases, clinical epidemiology as well as social epidemiology.
Social sciences

The Department of Socials Sciences focuses on population based research, aimed at studying the determinants of health, such as lifestyles, health behavior and sociocultural patterns of health services utilization, as well as the variables mediating the relations between behavior and health.

The Department also specializes in health services research, studying how health policy, financing systems, organizational structures and processes, and medical technology affect access to health care, the quality and cost of health care, and quantity and quality of life. The primary goal is to identify the most effective ways to organize, manage, finance, and deliver high quality care; reduce medical errors; and improve patient outcomes.
Oncology

Medical research is key to further improve not only insights into disease but also to improve our quality of care. It should focus on relevant disease and health care issues common to our country. It is our ambition to continue our known line of research on sickle cell disease with emphasis on anti-inflammatory treatment modalities, circulating endothelial cells and dysregulated angiogenesis. Interventional studies aimed at supportive care in radiation oncology will soon start. With the increasing financial burden on our healthcare system, protocols are to be implemented in order to make rational value based choices for hemato-oncological care. The impact and applicability of such protocols on both quality and cost of care will be studied, as well as the applicability of specific models in comparable low- and middle-income countries. Lastly, in collaboration with our colleagues abroad, a prospective cancer registry system will be started, which will not only offer accurate epidemiological and outcome data, but will form a basis for future research as well.

Virology

Viruses pose a constant threat to the Caribbean region and Latin America. Monitoring incursion of new viruses into a country requires state-of-the-art technology and a surveillance system in vectors, such as mosquitoes, and prompt investigations based on syndromic surveillance. In addition, the department of virology studies the pathogenesis of several virus infections.

Two different designs are used for this purpose: observational studies in humans and in vitro studies. We study infections with Dengue virus, West Nile virus, Zika virus, Human immunodeficiency virus, Epstein-barr virus and Cytomegalovirus. Studies of virus pathogenesis are conducted in close collaboration with renown virological institutes.

>> Visit Virology

Capital management

The Capital Management Office (CMO) of CBHRI is responsible for the financial administration of grants funded by life-science funding agents, corporate responsibility foundations (CRF), charity foundations (CF), and crowdfunding (FR). Within the framework of this mission the CMO undertakes amongst others the following duties:

a. Coordinates the process of acquiring capital resources through CRF, CF, and FR
b. Participates in the procedure of submitting grant proposals in close co-operation with the Principal Investigators.
c. Administers financially the approved grants.
d. Keeps and updates statistic information related to ongoing or past grants.
e. Generates and submits financial reports to the paying authorities (i.e. Europe Commission (EC) grants, Graduate Student Research and Training (GSRT) grants, National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding).
f. Attends workshops for grants management organized by paying authorities or other entities.
g. Creates, maintains and updates web profiles of CBHRI

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