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Wamkelekile, Welkom
Wamkelekile, Welkom
How UCT’s Garden Route teaching platform is transforming health sciences training
Every year since 2016, as part of a pilot teaching and learning programme, a small group of UCT Health Sciences students have spent the final year of their MBChB living and studying in the scenic Garden Route District located within South Africa’s Western Cape Province. Students and alumni agree that there are enormous benefits to being immersed in the community they serve.
30 Dec 2021
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Addressing the psychosocial needs of women facing adversity
The second year of the pandemic brought additional challenges, but more opportunities to respond to address the psychosocial needs of women living in adversity. The Perinatal Mental Health Project (PMHP), located within the Centre for Public Mental Health in the Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health celebrated a number of highlights during 2021.
30 Dec 2021
The new division of Interdisciplinary Palliative Care and Medicine
Over the past 20 years, the palliative medicine programmes at the University of Cape Town (UCT) have become an established and world-renowned palliative medicine teaching and research group, and the first postgraduate program in palliative medicine on the African continent. In 2021, the UCT Senate approved this unit becoming a stand-alone division, known as the Interdisciplinary Palliative Care and Medicine (IPCM) division. IPCM is ideally situated within the new clinical department of Family, Community and Emergency Care, emphasising the commitment of IPCM to ensure accessible evidence-based palliative care across the continuum of care.
30 Dec 2021
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UCT spearheading training and research for occupational lung disease in Southern Africa
The highest global pneumoconiosis mortality and disability rates are found in Southern Sub-Saharan Africa. Given this high disease burden, A/Prof Shahieda Adams, occupational medicine specialist in the Division of Occupational Medicine, and Dr Qonita Said-Hartley, consultant radiologist and Head of Clinical Unit of Radiology at Groote Schuur Hospital, spearheaded an interdisciplinary African collaboration to promote capacity for the detection of pneumoconiosis. They delivered a training programme on how to classify chest radiographs of workers with occupational lung disease according to the International Labour Organisation classification. The training was done under the auspices of NEPAD (New Partnership for Africa’s Development) and took place at the Occupational Health Centre of Excellence in Kitwe, Zambia.
30 Dec 2021
Reaching the unreachable with malaria treatment
A special permit now allows specially trained malaria programme staff to treat malaria cases, advancing malaria elimination efforts by reaching more of those infected and treating them earlier. This intervention has been led by Prof Karen Barnes, from the Division of Clinical Pharmacology and Founding Director of the UCT MRC Collaborating Centre for Optimising Antimalarial Therapy (CCOAT). She co-chairs the South African Malaria Elimination Committee.
30 Dec 2021
Collaboration to make disability more visible
Collaborating with both internal and external partners is vital in making disability more visible and creating an environment that is inclusive and transformative. Members of the Division of Disability Studies in the Department of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences have been working with partners to develop research capacity and academic leadership that will contribute to the understanding of disability in context, as an issue of social justice.
30 Dec 2021
UCT spearheading training and research for occupational lung disease in Southern Africa
Professor Shahieda Adams, occupational medicine specialist in the Division of Occupational Medicine, and Dr Qonita Said-Hartley, consultant radiologist and Head of Clinical Unit of Radiology at Groote Schuur Hospital, spearheaded an interdisciplinary African collaboration to promote capacity for the detection of pneumoconiosis. They delivered a training programme on how to classify chest radiographs of workers with occupational lung disease at the Occupational Health Centre of Excellence in Kitwe, Zambia.
21 Dec 2021
Dr Muzzammil Ismail, winner of the global Reimagine Challenge 2020
Congratulations are in order to the School of Public Health and Family Medicine’s Registrar, Dr Muzzammil Ismail, who was announced as one of the winners of the global Reimagine Challenge 2020. The achievement sees him receiving up to US$25 000 (R375 000) in tuition scholarships.
13 Dec 2021
Access to Care Cape Town goes virtual to keep practical radiotherapy teaching on track during the pandemic
Radiotherapy (RT) uses ionizing radiation to target cancer cells in specific locations in the body, while attempting to spare normal tissue surrounding the cancer area. This requires sophisticated treatment machines as well as computerised RT treatment planning (RTP) systems to plan the delivery of the radiation accurately. About half of all cancer patients will require RT, but access to the machines is often limited. To address this, new machines are being installed worldwide, making training essential.
13 Dec 2021
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Global Surgery in Action
Based in the Faculty of Health Sciences, the Division of Global Surgery aims to improve the quality of surgical care in Africa through research, capacity building, implementation and advocacy. They envision a world in which all people have access to quality, comprehensive, surgical care. In 2021, the Division focused on Advocacy and Implementation in an attempt to focus on systems change and community engagement.
13 Dec 2021
GBV in the Spotlight: From Research to Frontline Interventions
Despite another challenging year for social science researchers in South Africa, the Gender, Health and Justice Research Unit (GHJRU) continued its violence prevention and response interventions as part of the “Masiphephe” network. Masiphephe, meaning “Let’s be safe” in Nguni, works towards reducing vulnerability to gender-based violence (GBV) and strengthening local governance responses to GBV.
13 Dec 2021
