NADI, FIJI. August 16-17. Principal Investigator and Program Director, Professor Rachel Novotny of the Children’s Healthy Living Program attended the meeting of Academias response to non-communicable disease in the Pacific Region and the17th Annual Pacific Islands Health Research Symposium in Nadi, Fiji. This research symposium served as an opportunity for delegates from across the Pacific to showcase and disseminate Pacific Island research related to non-communicable diseases (NCD). Professor Novotny gave the keynote address in which she described research in the US affiliated Pacific jurisdictions to prevent young child obesity as a means to reducing NCD. The symposium was an opportunity to network with colleagues doing similar work in the southern Pacific region and for alignment and collaboration for sustainable change in childhood obesity prevention and reduction of chronic disease in the Pacific region. The meetings provided a venue for Pacific-wide partnership and collaboration on strategies for effective training, research and outreach, including policy change, which will address the NCD epidemic in the Pacific Region.
