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June 2012 |
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honours for UCT fiveFive UCT scholars had reason to pop the bubbly last night; they were named among the country's science and technology trailblazers when the winners of the National Science and Technology Forum (NSTF)-BHP Billiton Awards were announced at a gala event |
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Chronic Diseases Initiative in Africa |
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The Chronic Diseases Initiative in Africa is a collaboration between the Universities of Cape Town, Stellenbosch and Western Cape, the SA Medical Research Council, the Western Cape provincial government and Shree Hindu Mandal Hospital and Ministry of Health and Social Welfare in Tanzania and Harvard University, USA. The Initiative will serve as a regional hub for developing and evaluating models for chronic disease care and prevention of their risk factors. The network aims to train chronic disease researchers and to work closely with government authorities in the formulation of cost-effective plans to reduce the impact of chronic diseases and their risk factors.
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May 2012 Go
big on PhDs, says MayosiIn his 2007 inaugural lecture titled The Future of Medicine, UCT's Professor Bongani Mayosi threw a pebble into a pool. It's an idea Mayosi would pitch again, on behalf of the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf), in its 2009 Consensus Report on Revitalising Clinical Research in South Africa: A study on clinical research and related training in South Africa, chairing ASSAf's 13-member study panel. Read more ... |
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February 2012 Medicine hails its medical scribes
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Jan
2012 Medicine’s magnificent seven   Doctors in the house: Dr Graeme Meintjies (left) and Dr Richard van Zyl-Smit are two of the seven doctoral graduates to come out of the Department of Medicine this year This week, UCT’s Department of Medicine will graduate the most PhD students it’s capped in one go in its 91-year history. Seven new doctors of medicine will graduate on 17 December, much to the delight of the department. Read more... |
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Vitamin D
deficiency linked to TB Researchers
at UCT and the National Institute for Medical Research
(NIMR) in the UK have found that vitamin D deficiency is
extremely common in black Africans living in Cape Town, and
is also associated with susceptibility to tuberculosis (TB)
infection. Read more... |
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Oct 2011 Mobile phones offer heart lifeline  Technology
that turns low-cost mobile phones into sophisticated
stethoscopes could save thousands of lives in poor
countries. The kit, developed by Oxford University and South
African researchers, enables people to record and analyse
their own heart sounds using a mobile phone microphone.
Patients then send the recordings to medics who can remotely
monitor their condition. The idea came from a conversation
between Dr Thomas Brennan of Oxford University’s Department
of Engineering Science and Professor Bongani Mayosi of the
University of Cape Town about how to reduce the numbers of
people dying of
tuberculous pericarditis: a condition affecting up to
1-2% of TB patients where the lining of the heart becomes
infected. Read more... |
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Sept 2011 NRF kudos for UCT scholars
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Aug 2011 |
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| UCT women aplenty in M&G book | |||
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| Prof Anusuya Chinsamy-Turan | Prof Jill Farrant | Prof Karen Sliwa | |
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Mail & Guardian's Book of South African Women is a celebration of the achievements of women in South African society. (Or, in the words of M&G editor-in-chief, Nic Dawes, "to discover and represent people who are doing transformative work".) Read more .... |
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June 2011 |
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| Lung Institute breathes new life into old TB clinic | |||
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Mail & Guardian's Book of South African Women is a celebration of the achievements of women in South African society. (Or, in the words of M&G editor-in-chief, Nic Dawes, "to discover and represent people who are doing transformative work".)Read more... | ||
February 2011 |
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| Lung Institute breathes new life into old TB clinic | |||
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A fresh coat of light blue paint delineates the newly
refurbished section of the Chapel Road Clinic in Salt River.
The area has been transformed with several counselling
rooms, improved patient access and confidential waiting
areas where patients can receive tailored care.
Read more... |
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| Professor shakes things up in cardiac studies | |||
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After Professor Karen Sliwa delivered her inaugural lecture on 16 February, colleague Professor Valerie Mizrahi described her as the "consummate clinician/scientist", someone whose work stretches "from the intricacies of cell biology and genetics through to primary health care and intervention". Read more ... | ||
| Medical teachers grab 2010 awards | |||
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Professor Roland Eastman and Professor Zephne van der Spuy, both from the Faculty of Health Sciences, were named as the recipients of UCT's 2010 Distinguished Teacher Awards. So, as both indicated, their experiences of teaching are perhaps unlike that of most at the university - no large lecture halls crammed with students, for one. Read more ... | ||
December 2010 |
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| International honour for TB authority | |||
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UCT's Associate Professor Keertan Dheda has been named as the winner of the 2010 Union Scientific Award of the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (IUATLD). This international award is made annually to a researcher under the age of 45 who has made an outstanding contribution to the field of tuberculosis and/or lung disease. Read more... | ||
30 November 2010 |
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| Trust me, I'm a (new) doctor | |||
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It seemed appropriate that the notorious Cape Doctor
would show up at the annual final-year results bash at the
Faculty of Health Sciences last night when 183 new doctors,
representing a 98.4% pass rate, formally received their
results. Read more... |
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| Well-cited four stand out in AIDS research | |||
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A paper by four UCT scholars has been named as the most
cited clinical-sciences article, for 2009, to appear in the
journal AIDS, the official journal of the
International AIDS Society. Read
more... |
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Oct 2010 |
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| Medical students speak to media on UCT admissions policy | |||
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Students spoke out to the media about UCT's controversial admissions policy at a press conference hosted at the Faculty of Health Sciences on 1 October. Welcoming the media, faculty dean Professor Marian Jacobs acknowledged that using race as a proxy for disadvantage in their admissions process had been under the media spotlight recently. Read more .... | ||
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Sept 2010 |
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| TB workshop poses thorny question | |||
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The controversial question of whether or not to incarcerate patients with drug-resistant tuberculosis came under the spotlight at a workshop held at the Faculty of Health Sciences from 3 to 5 September. Workshop participants heard from a number of experts that valid medical concerns about risk to the community had to be weighed up against the ethical and human rights of patients. Read more... | ||
| Health sciences to lead drug-resistant TB workshop | |||
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The forced isolation or incarceration of patients with drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) will be in the spotlight at a workshop titled Current Practices, Controversies and Clinical Challenges, in the Faculty of Health Sciences from 3 to 5 September. Valid medical concerns about risks to the community have to be weighed up against the ethical and legal human rights ramifications of enforced isolation of an individual, and the availability of resources. Read more... | ||
Aug 2010 |
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| Hasta la vista - 23 Aug 2010 | |||
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The Athlone cooling towers that have been so much a part of
the vista from upper campus, stretching across the Cape
Flats to the Hottentots Holland Mountains, are no more. At
four minutes to 12h00 on 22 August, 7 000 charges were set
off and the towers collapsed under their own weight.
Read more ... |
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| Students bring smiles to disabled | |||
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It was fun, games and learning when UCT medical students
hosted a blow dart tournament for patients with disabilities
at the Western Cape Rehabilitation Centre recently. The blow
dart is similar to the normal dart game, but instead of
throwing darts, participants use blowguns.
Read more ... |
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Jul 2010 |
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| New award to encourage young medical scientists | |||
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Young medical researchers were honoured for their outstanding output at the first Best Publication Awards held by UCT's School of Medicine on 26 July. Opening the ceremony, deputy dean Professor Greg Hussey said that he hoped the awards would become a regular event, and will encourage and retain young researchers at the faculty. Read more ... | ||
| A retreat from the hospital | |||
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The Faculty of Health Sciences has officially launched a new student learning centre in the Cape Flats suburb of Retreat, where students will work and learn in the kinds of health-care conditions they will probably run into often during their careers. Read more ... | ||
| New doctors to boost public health | |||
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Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi has urged medical graduates to be the "agents of change" and uphold a high moral and caring ethos to help South Africa turn around the ailing health care system. At a graduation, at UCT on 7 July, of 40 medical students who were part of the South Africa-Cuba Health Cooperation Agreement, Motsoaledi described the current health care system as "expensive, destructive and unsustainable". Read more ... | ||
June 2010 |
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Genetic lineages make people react
differently to drugs |
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Genetically speaking, all human beings on the planet are 99% related to one another, but all have different predispositions to disease, and different groups of people may respond differently to therapeutic drugs. This was emphasised by Professor Raj Ramesar, head of the Division of Human Genetics at UCT, at a public lecture, Exploring Ancient History Using DNA, recently. The lecture forms part of Celebrating Africa, a partnership between UCT and Iziko Museum. Read more ... | ||
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The Gastrointestinal Clinic at UCT/Groote Schuur Hospital has been boosted by the donation of an Olympus endoscopic ultrasound system to diagnose complex gastrointestinal diseases. The R3-million funding was spearheaded by Adrian Hatfield, visiting professor of gastroenterology from University College Hospital in London, who persuaded winemaking entrepreneurs Rhona and Graham Beck to help. Read more ... | ||
The
Faculty of Health Sciences has, thanks to some
generous partners, put money where their
Clinical Scholars' Programme is. At a cocktail
function on 15 June, the faculty named the
winners of the first scholarships - sponsored by
pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim and
the Medical Research Council (MRC) - to be
presented as part of the programme.
Publishing
typically comes at the end of a very long to-do list for
those lecturers-cum-clinicians-cum-researchers in UCT's
Department of Medicine.
