Health Sciences alumni with the edge
- By Deborah Minors
American publishing association, BiomedLib named an article by specialist obstetrician and gynaecologist, and School of Clinical Medicine associate lecturer, Dr Jayati Basu (MSc (Medicine) 2001, MMed 2006), as one of the top 10 articles on the management of labour that it published on the topic in 2009 and 2010. Basu’s article, Role of a second stage partogram in predicting outcome of normal labour, reported on a study in which Basu monitored 79 women from the onset of labour to delivery, the aim of which was to develop a new second stage partogram for better management of women in labour.
At a graduation ceremony in London in September 2010, the British Society for Oral Medicine awarded honorary fellowship to Professor Maeve Coogan (MSc 1975, PhD (Science) 1991) in the School of Oral Health, oral microbiology division, for her sustained contribution towards understanding the oral effects of HIV. Coogan drove the establishment of an oral microbiology course at Wits in 1970, pioneering this aspect of oral health in South Africa. Former Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences, Professor Helen Laburn (BSc, BSc Hons 1973, PhD (Science) 1977) has been appointed Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research at Wits. Laburn will focus on the research reputation of Wits in support of the ‘Wits 2022’ vision to position the University in the top 100 worldwide by the time the University celebrates its centenary in 2022. Laburn headed the School of Physiology – the largest entity teaching physiology in South Africa – from 2000 to 2006. A National Research Foundation-rated researcher, her research interests include the physiology and patho-physiology of temperature regulation and fever, specifically in the foetus.
American firm BlueCross BlueShield of North Dakota (BCBSND), Fargo, appointed clinical associate professor of medicine at the University of Dakota, Dr David Hanekom (MBBCh 1987) as Chief Medical Officer and Vice-President: Medical Management in January 2011. Hanekom joined BCBSND in 2007. He was previously an internal medicine physician at Sanford Southpointe Clinic, Fargo, involved in ambulatory and hospital-based internal medicine. He also practiced in the Palliative Care Unit at Sanford South University. He is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians.
Professor Phumzile Hlongwa is the first black female to be appointed head of the Wits School of Oral Health Sciences and Chief Executive of the Wits Dental School, effective 1 January 2011. Hlongwa joins Wits from Pretoria University where she was head of the orthodontics department. Hlongwa qualified as an oral hygienist in 1986 and practiced for two years. She completed a dental science degree at the Medical University of South Africa (Medunsa) in 1993 and won the Dean’s Award for outstanding academic achievement. She practiced privately in Limpopo, and then returned to Medunsa in 1997, initially as part-time orthodontics lecturer and ultimately as head of the orthodontics department which, during her tenure, was five times identified as the Best Clinical Department. She won a research scholarship to the University of North Carolina, USA, in 2000 and specialised in orthodontics in 2002. Hlongwa is currently completing a PhD on the ‘Effects of antiretroviral drugs on orthodontic tooth movement’.
The Faculty of Public Health in the UK’s Royal Colleges of Physicians elected Wits benefactor and transformation champion, Professor Shan Naidoo (MBBCh 1983, DTM&H 1986, DPH 1987, DHSM 1988, DOH 199, MMed 1996) a Fellow ‘through distinction’ in December 2010 for his contributions towards advancing transformation in the training of public health practitioners.Head of community health and chair of the transformation committee in the School of Public Health, Naidoo joined Wits in 2001 and revamped the Master of Public Health (MPH) programme to promote transformation of health services. He later reformed the MMed and MSc (field epidemiology) programmes and, at the request of the State, introduced a Master of Public Health in Hospital Management in 2005. Naidoo represents the Faculty on the University’s employment equity task team, and the Institutional Culture Committee. He has presided over the College of Public Health Medicine, the Public Health Association of South Africa and the College of Public Health Medicine, in which capacities he ensured that public health specialty training be emphasised.
Microsoft Chairman and healthcare philanthropist, Bill Gates invited Professor Helen Rees to participate in a panel discussion with Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David Oshinsky, and other experts on ‘Polio eradication and the power of vaccines’, held in New York City on 31 January 2011. Executive Director of the Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Research Unit, Rees participated in her capacity as Chair of the World Health Organisation’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts, established in 1999 to guide the work of the WHO Immunisation, Vaccines and Biologicals department. The panellists discussed how global childhood immunisation efforts had reduced polio by 99%, thus presenting a powerful case for the value of vaccines.
Stanford Who’s Who in Sydney, Australia, recognised Dr Lee Silverstone (MBBCh 1999) by including him in its ranking of leading professionals in the field, in March 2011. Silverstone is the medical director for Pfizer in Sydney. He provides medical input into business strategy for a portfolio of drugs and explores new opportunities for the company.
The International Society of Hypertension (ISH) awarded the director of the Soweto Cardiovascular Research Unit, Professor Karen Sliwa-Hahnle (DTM&H 1995, PhD (Medicine) 2002) its 2010 Boehringer Ingelheim Developing World Award at the 23rd Scientific Meeting regarding Global Cardiovascular Risk Reduction, held in Canada from 26-30 September 2010. The award recognises Sliwa-Hahnle’s “outstanding work in South Africa, both in initiating major epidemiology studies on the prevalence of cardiovascular disease and its risk factors initially in Soweto and more broadly across the continent, in developing an international consortium to perform the Heart of Africa Study”, according to a letter from the ISH.