A public lecture and symposium on ageing will be hosted by the council of the Ena Thomas Memorial this weekend at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel, in New Kingston.

The lecture on The Ageing Brain is scheduled for 6:30 p.m., tomorrow, and will be presented by Karen Bell, professor of neurology at Columbia University Medical School, New York City and Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimers' Disease.

On Sunday, a symposium titled Ageing - Some Clinical Concerns will be declared open by Dr Wayne Henry, director general of the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ).

The symposium will explore issues such as Falls in the Elderly, Some Neurological Issues, Alzheimer's Disease: The Future of Diagnosis & Treatment, Heart Failure, Cardiac Arrhythmia and Diabetes in the Aged.

Professor Marielle Scherrer-Crosbi. from the University of Pennsylvania, will deliver the memorial lecture on Cancer and Heart Disease: Role of Echocardiography.

A number of distinguished local faculty will present at the symposium including physicians attached to the University Hospital of the West Indies, the University of Technology, The HEART Institute of the Caribbean and other private and public institutions.

The Ena Thomas Memorial Symposium is hosted annually in honour of the late Dr Ena Thomas, former distinguished physician at the Kingston Public Hospital.