Wits endocrinologist again named as one of the world’s most highly cited researchers
- Wits University
Professor Derick Raal has for the third time been named as a Highly Cited Researcher.
The papers of these researchers rank in the top 1% by citations for a field or fields and publication year in the Web of Science™.
Of the world’s population of scientists and social scientists, Highly Cited Researchers™ are 1 in 1,000.
Globally, there are 6 938 Highly Cited Researchers in 2022.
The methodology that determines the “who’s who” of influential researchers draws on the data and analysis performed by bibliometric experts and data scientists at the Institute for Scientific Information™ at Clarivate.
Professor Derick Raal is the Head of the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism and the Director of the Carbohydrate and Lipid Metabolism Research Unit in the School of Clinical Medicine at Wits University.
His research has been cited 17 505 times across 272 publications, according to his Clarivate Web of Science citation report.
Raal is a leading expert on familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH), one of the most common inherited disorders in the world, affecting approximately 1 in every 300 persons, or over 30 million people, worldwide.
In the Afrikaner, Jewish and Indian populations of South Africa, the prevalence is even higher, with about 1 in every 80 persons affected.
FH remains a difficult condition to treat. As a result of markedly elevated cholesterol levels from birth, untreated patients with FH suffer from early heart attack and often premature death.
"Overcoming the challenges of severe FH has been a long and difficult journey, but it has been fulfilling to have been part of the advances for the treatment of FH over the past three decades," says Raal.
"It has been a wonderful experience for me to observe my FH patients, many of whom I have been treating from a very young age and for over 30 years, mature and grow up. It has been very rewarding to observe their gratitude and their joy as their cholesterol levels have been lowered further and further with these novel therapies, which has allowed them to live healthier, longer lives."
Raal has played a pivotal role in advancing the treatment for FH both locally and internationally over the past three decades. His research unit is nationally and internationally recognised for its work on FH and has one of the largest cohorts of homozygous FH patients in the world. Raal is on the Steering Committee developing a worldwide registry of homozygous and heterozygous FH subjects.
Research in the unit includes the epidemiological, clinical and biochemical aspects of common diseases affecting lipid, and glucose metabolism in the different ethnic groups of Southern Africa. These include insulin resistance, diabetes mellitus and metabolic disorders, as well as FH and other lipid disorders.
Commenting on his Highly Cited Researcher status, Raal says, "I have remained in academic medicine because of my love for research. It is also heart-warming to be recognised by the Web Of Science as one of the top researchers in the field of Medicine and to know that my research has been acknowledged, but more importantly, that it has benefitted the lives of patients," says Raal.
In addition to being named a Highly Cited Researcher in 2022, Raal was also awarded a Doctorate in Science (DSC) and was A1-rated by the National Research Foundation. An NRF A1-rating denotes a researcher who is recognised by all reviewers as a leading scholar in his field internationally for the high quality and wide impact (ie, beyond a narrow field of specialisation) of his recent research outputs. Over the last eight years, he has published 119 peer-reviewed articles and seven book chapters and delivered 31 keynote addresses.
Professor Lynn Morris, Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research and Innovation at Wits, says: “The inclusion of Professor Derick Raal on the most highly cited list for the third year speaks to the impact of the work being conducted at Wits. Prof. Raal is a leader in the field of lipid metabolism that is globally recognised. We congratulate Prof. Raal on this exceptional achievement.”