Of Course I Am Coming Home
Dr. Nikita Greenidge on CariSurg, surgical robotics, and building a MedTech ecosystem that Caribbean talent can come home to.
A Caribbean Currents Q&A. Questions by Mary Miller Sallah, Managing Editor.
As Caribbean Currents has learned more about CariSurg and our relationship with the organization has deepened, we wanted our readers to hear directly from the woman behind it. Days after CariSurg celebrated the culmination of its second cohort — 40 scholars drawn from eight CARICOM nations — our Managing Editor posed these questions to Dr. Nikita Greenidge, Founder and Program Director of CariSurg and Postdoctoral Fellow in Surgical Robotics at the University of Leeds. The daughter of two respected physicians, Dr. Greenidge is a product of the region’s tradition of medical leadership — and today, an inspiring leader in her own right for so many young professionals and students across the Caribbean.
You’ve gone from St. Lucia to leading surgical robotics research at the University of Leeds. Tell us about that journey — what did it take, and who or what made it possible?
Both of my parents work in the medical field, so I grew up inspired by the life-saving work they did, but also very aware of some of the healthcare challenges we face in the Caribbean. My passion, though, was always building things and understanding how they worked. On weekends, my dad — who I’m convinced would have been an engineer in another life — would bring home broken equipment and we would fix it together.
That made me realise quite early that our technology problem wasn’t only about money. Equipment would break and there often wasn’t a system to repair it, but sometimes the deeper problem was that it simply wasn’t designed for our reality in the first place.
At around 15, I discovered medical engineering and realised I could combine my interest in healthcare with my love of building things. There wasn’t a medical engineering degree available regionally at the time, so I was fortunate to receive an Island Scholarship to study in the UK.
I left St. Lucia with a very clear why: I wanted to help bridge the Caribbean’s healthcare technology gap but I still was not clear on how.
I did not know I wanted to pursue a PhD, but a summer research internship at Oxford introduced me to the power of research, and my supervisor there gave me the confidence to believe I could. I still didn’t find the right PhD immediately, so I went into industry first. Eventually, I applied to Leeds — somewhere I’d never been — to work in robotics, something I’d never done before.
More than anything, people have made my journey possible. I’ve been fortunate to meet people who understood what I was trying to achieve and gave me opportunities, encouragement and room to grow.
I’ve learned to stay clear on my ‘why’, while being patient with the ‘how’. Some of the best opportunities I’ve had were never part of the plan.
What inspired you to found CariSurg? Was there a moment when you realised Caribbean students needed a bridge into this field?
As I became more specialised, I kept hearing some version of, “Well, I guess you don’t plan on coming home.”
And my response was always: Of course I am coming home.
The idea of coming home is what keeps me going. I left to gain skills and experience that weren’t available to me at home, so that when I do come back, I have something meaningful to contribute.
But along the way, I realised that coming home isn’t enough if there is no space in which those skills can be used. And I know I’m not the only Caribbean person who will face that problem.
That’s what CariSurg is about: creating space for Caribbean people to develop specialised skills, contribute to these fields and eventually build meaningful careers from home.
For readers hearing “surgical robotics and healthcare AI” for the first time — what does CariSurg actually do, and why does it matter for Caribbean patients, not just Caribbean students?
CariSurg’s 12-week MedTech Pathways Programme offers three routes.
The Surgical Robotics Research pathway begins with four weeks online alongside scholars from the other pathways, followed by eight fully funded weeks at the University of Leeds working with PhD researchers on real surgical robotics projects.
Our Healthcare AI Research pathway follows the same four-week online foundation before eight fully funded weeks at UWI Mona developing research-led healthcare AI projects.
The third is our free Virtual Healthcare AI Training Programme. This year, scholars spent 12 weeks collaborating across eight Caribbean countries to develop software solutions for Caribbean emergency departments.
Across all three pathways, scholars learn to identify clinical needs, review the evidence, assess whether technologies such as AI or robotics are actually appropriate, develop and test solutions, and present their findings to experts.
The bigger goal is regional capacity. Our healthcare systems and resources have their own realities, so we need Caribbean people who can identify our healthcare challenges and develop technologies around them.
Ultimately, all of this has to translate into better care for Caribbean patients.
Your second cohort just culminated at the end of August — 40 scholars from eight CARICOM nations. What stood out to you about this group?
Two things really stood out: resilience and how dramatically AI has made it easier for people without formal computer science or engineering training to start building technology.
Every scholar who joined us in person this year had actually applied the previous year and wasn’t successful. They came back, applied again and got in. That reminded me too that rejection doesn’t necessarily mean an opportunity isn’t for you. Sometimes it just means not yet.
We also deliberately made our Healthcare AI Training Programme accessible to 18–25-year-olds without requiring a university degree. The scholars really validated that decision.
Our virtual scholars came from different countries, disciplines and educational backgrounds and had to work together remotely — which isn’t easy. But they pulled through and developed genuinely innovative ideas grounded in research evidence.
AI has lowered the barrier to developing technical skills enormously. A degree remains extremely valuable, particularly in healthcare, but it is no longer the only way to begin learning and building.
For a region where access to specialist programmes isn’t evenly distributed, I think that’s an enormous opportunity.
Can you share one or two fellows’ projects or breakthroughs from this cohort that made you especially proud?
One that really stood out was Orville Daley’s project.
After observing a live robotic surgery in London performed by Barbadian urologist Dr Jonathan Noel, he substantially changed the direction of what he was developing because the experience revealed a more important clinical need.
I was probably more proud of that decision than I would have been if he’d simply perfected his original idea.
In healthcare innovation, it’s very easy to fall in love with the technology you’re building. But the technology is only as important as the clinical problem you’re solving.
The ability to listen, recognise that your assumptions may be wrong and redesign around a genuine clinical need is exactly the mindset we want our scholars to develop.
Your previous scholars have said the programme erased their doubts about whether Caribbean talent can compete internationally. How do you keep that momentum going once the programme ends?
One of the best signs that it’s working is seeing scholars come back.
Justin Sooknanan from Trinidad and Tobago, for example, returned as an alumnus and led our virtual cohort this year. That’s exactly the kind of cycle we want to create.
CariSurg stays connected with scholars after the programme through mentorship, opportunities and networks, but as we grow we can’t support everyone individually forever. The community has to become self-sustaining.
That’s why we foster peer connections and bring people from the Caribbean diaspora and beyond into our MedTech Talks. Sometimes you don’t need someone to give you a roadmap — you need to see that a career exists, meet someone doing it and realise it’s possible for you too.
Ultimately, I want the community itself to become the resource: scholars helping scholars, alumni opening doors for the next cohort, and clinicians, researchers and members of the diaspora sharing their expertise and opportunities.
You’ve built partnerships with UWI, the University of Leeds, the STORM Lab and the Caribbean College of Surgeons — and even presented to CARICOM Heads of Mission in London. What’s your vision for where CariSurg goes next?
The next phase is translation — turning the capacity we’re building into solutions that reach clinical practice.
This year we ran our in-person model at Mona for the first time, working with new hosts and supervisors. It showed us that the model is replicable: we can work with different laboratories, clinicians, universities and industry partners to create meaningful research experiences, while those organisations also benefit from the talent and ideas our scholars bring.
Now I want to move much closer to clinical implementation: working directly with Caribbean hospitals and clinicians to identify problems, research them, develop and test solutions, and create pathways for successful technologies to reach patients.
Long term, I’d like to establish a self-sustaining Caribbean institute for research and innovation in medical and surgical AI and robotics, drawing together talent from across the region and diaspora while collaborating internationally.
I want a clinician in St. Lucia, Trinidad, Barbados or anywhere else in the region to be able to identify a problem and have a regional ecosystem capable of taking that problem from clinical need, through research and engineering, to implementation.
We’ve started by building the people. Now we need to build the infrastructure and industry around them.
For a young person in St. Lucia or anywhere in the region reading this and thinking “that could be me” — what would you tell them, and how can they — or supporters — get involved?
I think the way we learn has fundamentally changed.
There used to be this idea that you learn to do. Increasingly, I think we do to learn.
If you have an idea, start building it. Don’t wait until you understand everything or feel completely qualified. Build something, discover what you don’t know, learn it and try again. Between AI, online courses, open-source tools, research papers and global communities, there are more resources available than ever before.
That’s particularly powerful for someone from a small country. The opportunity might not exist physically around you yet, but that doesn’t mean you can’t start.
And don’t feel that you need your entire path mapped out. Mine certainly wasn’t.
Focus on your why. Be patient with the how. And start doing.
For people who want to support CariSurg, there are several ways to get involved.
CariSurg is volunteer-led, and all of our programmes are provided free of charge and fully funded. Financial support is therefore absolutely essential to ensuring that no one is excluded because of their circumstances.
Support isn’t only financial. We welcome mentors, clinicians, researchers, technical experts and organisations that can offer projects, internships, equipment, data, introductions or partnerships. If you have a healthcare challenge, we can connect you with emerging Caribbean talent to research it, prototype solutions or offer fresh perspectives.
The strongest partnerships benefit everyone: scholars gain experience, organisations gain access to talent and ideas.
Ultimately, we’re building a Caribbean ecosystem where people can develop world-class expertise and meaningful careers without having to choose between success and coming home.
About Dr. Nikita Greenidge
Dr. Nikita Greenidge is the Founder and Program Director of CariSurg and a Postdoctoral Fellow in Surgical Robotics at the University of Leeds. Born and raised in St. Lucia, the daughter of two physicians, she left the region on an Island Scholarship to study medical engineering in the UK and now works to build the pathways that let Caribbean talent develop world-class expertise and bring it home. CariSurg’s programmes are free, fully funded, and volunteer-led. To learn more, apply, mentor, or support the programme, visit carisurg.com.
Medical Mondays publishes one clinical voice from across the Caribbean and its diaspora every Monday.
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