Leading Dominican healthcare and medical management organizations have convened hundreds of global and local stakeholders in Santo Domingo for the third edition of the International Health Quality and Safety Forum, an event focused on addressing systemic gaps in global and national healthcare while charting a path toward more patient-centered, safe, and innovative medical practice.
The gathering was jointly organized by the Center for Diabetes, Obesity and Specialties (CEMDOE), a Dominican specialized medical institution, and INTEGRA, a regional healthcare asset management firm. The three-day event brought together senior government health officials, hospital and clinical system leaders, and top medical governance experts from across Latin America and North America to unpack pressing challenges and untapped opportunities for strengthening Dominican Republic’s national health ecosystem.
Opening the forum, CEMDOE Director of Marketing and Communications Monika Harel underscored a core collective principle: advancing healthcare quality and patient safety cannot be the responsibility of a single institution, but requires sustained collaboration across every segment of the medical sector. Following her opening remarks, Dominican Republic Health Minister Víctor Atallah delivered a keynote address that reoriented the conversation around proactive patient safety. Atallah emphasized that building robust patient protection frameworks depends on intentional prevention and advance preparedness, rather than relying solely on reactive crisis response after adverse medical events occur.
The forum featured a full slate of technical presentations and panel discussions led by internationally recognized health policy and quality improvement experts. Among the featured speakers were Dr. Ezequiel García-Elorrio from Argentina’s Institute for Clinical Effectiveness and Health Policy, and Paola Ortiz, Senior Director at the global Institute for Healthcare Improvement. Core discussion themes ranged from improving clinical outcomes and system-wide healthcare quality to strengthening institutional leadership and governance across public and private medical providers.
One of the forum’s headline strategic panels, titled “Responsible Innovation: Building the Future of Clinical Research in the Dominican Republic,” explored the country’s growing potential to expand its domestic clinical research sector. Panelists, including senior representatives from global pharmaceutical leaders MSD, Roche, and Pfizer alongside CEMDOE leadership, delved into strategies to grow research capacity while upholding the strictest scientific, ethical, and patient safety standards.
Beyond knowledge-sharing and policy dialogue, the event featured two major institutional announcements from CEMDOE: the official launch of the new RED CEMDOE clinical network, and plans for a new state-of-the-art outpatient care facility located on Santo Domingo’s John F. Kennedy Avenue. Scheduled to open its doors in November 2026, the new outpatient center is projected to dramatically expand CEMDOE’s annual patient reach, growing from the current 285,000 annual patients to more than 475,000 people across the Dominican Republic.
Organizers noted that the annual forum has emerged as a key regional platform for cross-sector dialogue, with the third edition continuing CEMDOE and INTEGRA’s shared mission of fostering global knowledge exchange to support the development of safer, more innovative, and patient-focused healthcare institutions across the Dominican Republic.