US navy eyes PNG research facilities
PAPUA New Guinea has been chosen to be the base for the US Navy Medical Research Unit (Namru) in the Pacific.
Namru delegates have already visited two premier learning institutions, the University of Papua New Guinea’s school of medicine and health sciences (SMHS) in Port Moresby and the PNG Institute of Medical Research (PNGIMR) in Goroka where they hoped to establish their research unit.
They visited the SMHS on Wednesday where they were taken on a tour around research laboratories and the medical library by various school deans.
Their tour was to find out what the SMHS were capable of and the capacity it had in carrying out medical research.
Executive dean Sir Isi Kevau was happy that the SMHS was one institution chosen as it would bring much development and benefits to the students and the institution itself.
“I’ve a got an open mind about this. The world is flat, when it comes to medical science you’ve got to have a partner to do medical research,” he said.
He said SMHS would work in collaboration with the Namru if they decide to establish their unit in PNG.
Sir Isi and his counterparts, Prof John Vince, Lohi Matainaho and Dr Victor Temple compiled an information guide containing an overview of the school and research activities it was engaged in for Namru.
“We’ve put together a list of researches done in PNG. There’s the lab research, clinical research and field research. IMR does all of those, UPNG does only clinical research,” he explained.
He said the purpose of having the Namru based here was to study and find out what sort of problems (medical and others) Americans living and working in the Pacific might encounter.
He said Namru could help with researches in diseases like malaria, tuberculosis and others in PNG.
Sir Isi said that part of the benefits from that would be the development and growth of local researchers.