Bill Gates once said “Advancements in Technology lead to advancements in medicine. Advancements in medicine lead to the advancement of humanity” 

Dear Early Career Researchers, Delegates, Distinguished guests and Faculty 

It is my utmost pleasure and privilege to host yet another exciting Early Career Research Symposium which will be the 6 th in the series since its inception in 2018. 

​The theme for this year’s congress is “Strengthening healthcare systems through innovation, technology, and evidence-based practice”. The recent Covid pandemic highlighted the importance of our global interconnectedness and the need to ensure that health systems have the innovative and technological capacity to control and address future and emerging global public health threats. Furthermore, robust health plans and evidence based policies are the backbone of well-functioning health systems.  

This year’s hybrid symposium provides the opportunity for young researchers a forum to share and discuss the results of their work. We aim to provide both the experience of a scientific congress, and an opportunity to network with colleagues from around the region and to participate in informal conversations about academia and research. 

In this regard we have the honor of welcoming our two keynote speakers; Dr. Judy Gichoya (Emory University, Atlanta Georgia and Prof. Salim Virani (Baylor College of Medicine, Houston) who will talk about their incredible journeys in medical research. Dr. Gichoya’s work in artificial intelligence and data science will I hope inspire many of you to pursue research in innovative technology which has the potential to close the gaps in health disparity and change the future face of medicine benefiting all our lives and the communities we serve. Prof Virani’s work in leveraging technology to inform point of care informatics for the prevention of cardiovascular disease and his passion for mentoring and building the careers of aspiring young researchers like yourselves promises to be an exciting highlight of the symposium.  

I hope this year’s symposium will encourage all early career researchers to work hard in furthering your research interest, flourishing in advancing healthcare through innovation, technology and evidence based best practice for strengthening health systems both in our countries and the world at large.