The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribuneemdia.net

DOCTORS Hospital is “standing poised” to submit its application to begin stem cell therapy once the Government has finalised the regulations, its president yesterday telling Tribune Business it has an “open mind” on the range of treatments it plans to offer.

Speaking on the heels of the STEMSO Conference in Freeport, Barry Rassin said: “To me, it’s the future of medicine. We are standing poised ready to put in an application.

“We have a number of groups who want to work with us to do their work right here at the Bahamas Medical Centre. We’re looking forward to the Government finishing its regulations and putting the system in place, so that we can make the applications and get started. I think it’s going to change people’s lives. I’m very anxiously looking forward to getting started.”

The Minister of Health, Dr Perry Gomez, said last week that draft regulations governing stem cell research and therapy in the Bahamas were now completed and should be presented to Parliament by the end of February.

As to the range of treatments Doctors Hospital is looking to offer, Mr Rassin said: “We have an open mind at this point. We want to be able to have a lab that can deal with any number of treatments, from diabetes to spines to multiple sclerosis and others.

“We want it to be a team approach, so various specialists will work together so that we can do different things. The infrastructure is here; we just ned to lab so we could do a lot of what needs to be done very quickly.”