Marketing of The Bahamas can be done by Bahamians...the ability to use big data may not be (I am not certain of the talent pool here.) Having said that though, big data is again a tool that is manipulated/used to predict anything from where Obama's voters would most likely eat dinner to what destination a 43yr divorcee will go on vacation (as you are suggesting). Having access to that information or being able to tease-out that from varied sources, is different from Marketing. Yes, a lot of marketing houses use big data analytics to target anyone from consumers, to students to patients. We may or may not have that skill-set in spades here, but we definitely can market our country and out-source big-data analytics. You might find this interesting. http://www.kdnuggets.com/2014/07/interv…

In my line of work, as I suppose marketing is, data and data analysis represent all of how a service improves or a product is further developed. whether qualitative or quantitative, data can be obtained through different methods, surveys, focus groups, random sampling etc... Analysis of this data collected and adjustments to existing system represent the way we improve our service. And it involves meeting the needs of the customer, improving on your delivery of service or product, and continuous innovation to be relevant.. Media Buy is a very specific tool use to optimize pre-established outcomes on data collected in the above fashion to a specific targeted population... (pause and think for a moment). Are you suggesting that the many talented marketing professional young Bahamians are not able to Market the Bahamas? And the target population is not limited to North America only. Come on.

The crew in Monty couldn't do better. ROL

Good piece, Mr. Editor. Your deductions I can support with regards to the Minister in question. Make no mistake Rights are always under attack. All that is stopping us from becoming a totalitarian state is for the masses to do nothing, to say nothing and we are so close to that.

Spot on Pub. 100 % in agreement with you. What specific studies is Lloyd referring to? Theories of cognitive development maps out how one develops neurally, which is different from learning, which too, is different from educating. But to your larger point I concur: does he even know how to critically appraise a study or what level the hierarchy of evidence his research has or whether his study was peer reviewed?

There will be a response from the Medical Association of The Bahamas to this article that mirrors a response to you by me and your suggestion on a previous article. To continue with this discussion will be pedantic and troll-like. I am a proud Bahamian physician with specialty qualification from United Kingdom.

I am trying not to be rude... your words reveal someone totally uninformed on how the medical world works. For example what Five Experts you speak of would you suggest were needed to be paneled? And, what is this "passing though" of which you speak? And by extension what institution are you suggesting is in the business of doing this?

In medicine, the outcome desired is almost always a collaborative effort and involves cross-disciplines and a team approach. You have no idea of the dedication, effort, long days and nights of preparation that goes on when doctors treat patients.

This was a beautiful story of how smart, caring parents with early interventional approach collaborated with a world leading institution which involved a super-sub-specialist for the best possible outcome... What you don't understand is that scenario is played out and repeated in almost every case in the hospital setting among the medical field.

For now, if I were you, I would just express happiness for the infant and his loving parents

All medical doctors are required by Law to have on-going continual medical education to maintain their licenses. Medical doctors who specialize have an additional years of training and most specialists in The Bahamas have Diploma is their specialty from all over the world (the majority from U.S.A.) Therefore, competency is not an issue here. Sub specialties, supported services and medical technology are relevant factors here in The Bahamas

Again, a very sensitive matter and I am happy to hear that Aidan's prognosis is good. But just a few comments. Vaccination schedules vary from territory to territory. They are usually determined by public health officers who can advise on prevalence, likelihood ratios, efficacies, adverse effects, susceptibilities etc. based on the population eg some territory do not include varicella (chicken pox) vaccine in their schedule as does United States and a few others. Also, Vaccine schedule can vary person to person depending on the immuno-competency of the individual: additional vaccinations may be added or an adjusted schedule adopted or a toxoid of the same vaccine vs an attenuated one. The vaccination schedules are updated annually in some territories based on collected data again the above mentioned. The Bahamas present Vaccination Schedule (to my knowledge) for example, does not include vaccination for kids at age 10-13yrs receiving vaccine for meningitis... something to think about. But I am certain you can get it privately if you want. The Surveillance Team at home is really, really good at their job when it come to compliance and updating. And the Dept. of Public Health really, really do a fantastic job at monitoring--(there are some unexpected and unappreciated golden gems among us that really make this country work). The point I am making is following CDC protocol is dependent on whether our population are the same.

Sorry Pub. I actually wrote the same response before reading your post. You are exactly correct.