Health Sciences alumni visit Wits to build bridges
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Carnegie-Wits Alumni Diaspora Programme, Faculty of Health Sciences
Two distinguished Wits Health Sciences alumni returned “home” in November 2017 as part of the ongoing Wits-Carnegie Alumni Diaspora Programme. The programme, initiated in 2010, brings back internationally renowned Health Sciences alumni to build research collaborations and networks with their Wits hosts.
Currently funded by the Carnegie Organisation of New York, the programme has blossomed since its inception and has contributed to the establishment of collaborative research projects, joint grants and supervision of postgraduate students.
Two of our most recent visitors, from Oxford in the UK and from Houston in the US respectively, had a marked impact on both academic staff and students in the Faculty during their visits.
Professor Kokila Lakhoo
From the dusty streets of Bethal to the towering spires of Oxford: paediatric surgeon Professor Kokila Lakhoo
Though she is small in stature, there is nothing small about Kokila Lakhoo’s knowledge, skills and accomplishments. She is currently clinical lead for paediatric surgery at the Children’s Hospital in Oxford and an honorary senior lecturer in paediatric surgery at the University of Oxford.
She graduated with an MBBCh from what was then the University of Natal in 1982, and with a PhD from Wits in 1994.
After training in adult general surgery and paediatrics, Professor Lakhoo underwent further specialised training in paediatric surgery at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, the Red Cross Children’s Hospital in Cape Town and Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital in London. Her specific interests are in paediatric tumour surgery, paediatric thoracic surgery and specialist gastrointestinal surgery. She is the Chair of the international forum for the British Association of Paediatric Surgeons.
Since 2002, Professor Lakhoo has been exchanging skills with surgeons in Tanzania through a Global Surgery Initiative to develop paediatric surgical skills. To date, 10 surgeons have been trained in paediatric surgery. Recently, she made a successful bid to the charitable organisation Kids OR to furnish and equip two new children's theatres and an endoscopic suite, which opened in September 2017. She visits this unit for 10 to 14 days each year with a team from the UK.
Through the Carnegie-Wits Alumni Diaspora Programme, Professor Lakhoo has established global engagement by senior members of the Wits Division of Paediatric Surgery. Senior members are now part of the Global Initiative for Children’s Surgery (www.globalchildrenssurgery.org), the Pan African Paediatric Surgery Association (www.papsa-africa.org) and the College of South East and Central Africa (www.cosecsa.org).
Professor Jerome Loveland, Academic Head of the Division of Paediatric Surgery, is the Wits host of Professor Lakhoo.
Professor Mike Belfort
Recognised as a leader in foetal surgery, Professor Mike Belfort “builds bridges” with the Wits Obstetrics and Gynaecology Department
Professor Mike Belfort is Professor and Chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. His knowledge of cerebral perfusion and cerebral autoregulation in pregnancy and pre-eclampsia has been highly acclaimed. He is an internationally recognised expert in maternal-foetal medicine and foetal intervention.
Professor Belfort was born and bred in South Africa. He completed his MBBCh at Wits in 1977, a research-based Doctor of Medicine degree at the University of Cape Town in 1990 and a PhD from the renowned Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden in 2000. He has obstetrics and gynaecology specialist qualifications in South Africa, the United Kingdom and Canada and trained in anaesthesiology in South Africa. His Fellowship in maternal foetal medicine was obtained at the Baylor College of Medicine.
An accomplished researcher and educator, Professor Belfort has a passion for the care of mothers and their unborn children which has brought him “home” to set up collaborations with the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. This was his first visit to the Wits Faculty as a Carnegie Fellow. He was hosted by Dr Salome Maswime in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.
Get involved
International alumni who hold a research portfolio and are interested in participating in the Carnegie-Wits Alumni Diaspora Programme, Faculty of Health Sciences, should contact Professor Emeritus Beverley Kramer (Beverley.kramer@wits.ac.za) for further information on the programme.