Deepening Pacific Cooperation at the Health Summit
The first-ever Population Health Summit took place on September 16, 2025, in the heart of Saipan, the capital city of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). The summit aimed to create a venue for sharing successes and learning from each other, particularly focusing on Pacific Island culture.
Organised by Halina Palacios, the Chief Operations Officer of Public Health for the Commonwealth Healthcare Corporation, the event brought together over 50 individuals, including strong representation from CNMI, and public health workers from U.S. territories and freely associated states.
The summit schedule included plenaries, poster presentations, and panel discussions on behavioural health, public health, and clinical practice. Faith group leaders and members of recovery communities were invited to speak, sharing their insights and experiences.
Oncologist Peter Brett and Dentist Angelina Sabino educated attendees on the realities they face treating the community, opening opportunities for collaboration on addressing oral cancer, a significant health concern in island jurisdictions due to high rates of betel nut use with tobacco and smoking.
Popular topics at the summit included data capacity, expanding approaches to behavioural health, technical assistance opportunities, and clinical resources. A panel discussion aimed to improve data collection and research across the region, emphasising the need for a centralised Institutional Review Board in CNMI.
The summit was intended to build on existing regional collaboration during the COVID-19 pandemic and aimed to lower travel costs and boost attendance compared to summits held in the continental United States.
Following the summit, new projects and collaborations are underway, with attendees contacting presenters for training sessions and sharing resources. Halina Palacios predicts that the Population Health Summit will be well established within the next five years, shifting standards for the public health profession in CNMI and across the Pacific Island jurisdictions.
However, there is no publicly available information about the name of the person who will organise the Population Health Summit in the Marshall Islands in the next five years as foreseen by Halina Palacios.
The event was held in June 2022, opening and ending each day with a prayer, reflecting the importance of Pacific Island culture in the proceedings. Panelists at the summit expressed a need for researchers to set higher expectations for data sharing and implementation of their recommendations.
The success of the inaugural Population Health Summit in CNMI is a testament to the importance of regional collaboration in addressing public health challenges in the Pacific Islands.
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