Training Site in the Bahamas

University of West Indies-Nassau Bahamas

The Bahamas is an archipelago made up of 700 islands, of which 30 are inhabited, with a population of nearly 400,000 people. The majority of the population is black, with West African roots. The official language is English. The Bahamas has the highest rate of BRCA-positivity in the world. There are 445 new cases of cancer in women in the Bahamas annually. Among these, breast cancer is the most common malignancy, followed by cancers of the cervix, colon, and endometrium.

Medical training in the Bahamas is primarily centered at the University of the West Indies in Nassau. The program to teach undergraduate medical students in the final two years of their undergraduate medical school five-year degree program in The Bahamas was established in 1997. The major teaching facility in Nassau is the Princess Margaret Hospital.

The partnership between the University of West Indies-Nassau and the University of Miami builds on strong relationships between Drs. Raleigh Butler, Brian Slomovitz, Darron Halliday, and Matthew Schlumbrecht, and further solidifies established collaborations between UM and the UWI campuses in both the Bahamas and Barbados. Beyond training in the surgical and clinical care of patients, they have established a comprehensive research program, endorsed by the Bahamas Ministry of Health, to evaluate translational, genetic, and clinical endpoints between the two sites. They are creating a network of colleagues who will significantly impact the lives of women with cancer to reduce the burden of disease in the region.

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Graduates from Bahamas