MorrisonAvia Ustanny, Outlook Writer
FORMERLY A senior member of the board of trustees of the health insurance provider, the professor of biochemistry and endocrinology was asked to bring his leadership skills and entrepreneurial talents to head the giant in medical insurance.
"It's not a lot that you can really achieve in a year," he admitted resignedly in a recent interview with Outlook.
But, his expectations of what can be done in a 12-month period aside, he has placed no limit on his ambitions to institute a culture of change. He has been working assiduously at changing product design and at increasing market share. He is boundlessly optimistic.
"If the product is refined and targeted at specific needs, it is possible to provide a policy, which is better geared to the needs of individuals," he stated.
Only those who do not know the professor will think the transition from academia to entrepreneurship a strange one.
Best known for his work with diabetes, Professor Morrison's research during a course at Cambridge University in 1981 resulted in what is known as Morrison's Syndrome, which was instrumental in highlighting for the World Health Organisation Expert Committee on Diabetes, the relevance of malnutrition as a possible cause.
Speaking on behalf of those affected by this disease, he has created a great awareness in Jamaica, the Caribbean and internationally.
The professor is the son of Lucille Maud Watson Morrision, the Jamaican teacher who took hundreds of teachers abroad through International Goodwill Association. "She was an indefatigable soul," her son remembers. "She did not know what it was to accept no for an answer."
Hobbies passed on
Her habits have clearly been passed on to him.
Professor Morrison is the co-founder, medical director, past-chairman and honorary life president of the Diabetes Association of Jamaica, which started in 1976 and now has over 50,000 members on register.
In 1982 he spearheaded the formation of the Diabetes Association of the Caribbean involving 26 member countries, inclusive of the English, Spanish, Dutch and French-speaking territories.
In 1991 he launched the University Diabetes Outreach Project which now coordinates the activities of the university in relation to diabetes, organising an annual international conference which attracts 500-1,000 participants from the world over, and which is conducted by a combined faculty from the Caribbean, Europe, USA, Africa and Canada.
He made a major personal commitment, acting as guarantor in the purchase of property for the headquarters of the Diabetes Association of Jamaica, which is now an active centre offering varied services related to the field. In addition to fulfilling all his academic responsibilities in the university, he also finds time for visiting clinics, health centres and groups throughout the island.
He chaired the World Health Assembly at the United Nations in Geneva in 2002, and participates in the follow-up work needed for worldwide implementation of the projects which emerged.
Changing reality
Now at Blue Cross, his enthusiasm comes in face of a changing reality for the organisation, which once monopolised health care in Jamaica.
Several new entrants to the health insurance field have staked a bid for the Jamaican market in which less than 25 per cent of the population has health insurance. Forty per cent in the employed labour force are still without health insurance too.
Professor Morrison is confident that there is room for significant expansion.
The scope for market growth is even greater in the wider Caribbean where fewer people have health insurance than in Jamaica and, in some cases, are expected to pay a greater percentage of their health costs.
His mandate, however, is greater than that of increasing market share. The professor dreams of changing an entire culture of health care.
At Blue Cross, his team is working on providing discounts for those who can prove that they have been engaged in regular gym attendance and other healthy lifestyle programmes.
He quoted a recent study of 50,000 people which showed that diabetes could be prevented in over 50 per cent of cases by controlling eating habits and exercising.
The treatment of chronic diseases is a vexed issue for the professor.
Mode of treatment
"The main mode of treatment (of chronic diseases) cannot be transplants and exotic surgery which is costly and widely unaffordable. Getting a healthy nation will depend on prevention and intervention."
He adds also that "many individuals need counselling advice."
The role of the counsellor needs to be recognised by the health industry, he said. Such help might range from psychiatry to violence containment.
This is an area still to be recognised by the health industry, professor Morrison stated, noting that the effort to create change will involve a significant effort to educate both consumers and service providers.
He explains that the massive jump in health costs in the last five years is due to advances in technical input.
"Health providers who are worried about lawsuits have resorted to increasing diagnostic and investigative services offered. The result has been high costs and 'over-investigating in place of good, old time, solid training.
"One should talk to the patient, examine the patient and then make an informed decision, as to what really needs to be done. Instead, what is offered to patients is more and more technical diagnosis with resulting leaps in health care costs."
Influencing costs also, is the higher rate of maternal deliveries in hospitals. Costs of drugs have also spiralled with not enough use of generic products in the pharmacies and hospitals.
Professor Errol Morrison has committed himself to improving health for the people of the Caribbean through the educational process. The CEO is also a Pro Vice Chancellor in the University of the West Indies and the immediate past chairman of the Council of Voluntary Social Services.
He has received numerous awards, including the Order of Jamaica, the Gold Musgrave Medal, and the Vice Chancellor' s Award of Excellence in Research and Service to the University and Community, as well as major international awards from PAHO, the EEC, Wolfson Foundation Grant, Fulbright award for Senior Scholars from the Caribbean at the Mayo Clinic in the U.S., Canadian International Development Agency for In-Service Training for Public Health Nurses in Diabetes. The professor recently completed refining of his theory of the role of micronutrients in diabetes, an achievement which gives him much pleasure.
Leisure time
When he is not working, the health guru and educator enjoys time spent with wife Dr. Fay Whitbourne and his seven daughters, three of whom came by marriage. His natural daughters are architect Ruth Alicia, paediatrician Dr. Sephora Naomi Morrison, a resident at Beth Israel Hospital in New York, and Dr. Maya Katrine Morrison-Bryant, who works at Johns Hopkins Hospital in the United States.
He is also the father of Collette Morrison, a recent entrant in the Miss Jamaica World Competition and a business studies graduate employed to GraceKennedy.
The professor loves to read, and writes poems for inspiration.
"Reading maketh the man," he says with a smile.
