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Annual Academic Day showcases research achievements
Author: FMHS Marketing & Communication / FGGW Bemarking & Kommunikasie
Published: 30/08/2018

​The Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences (FMHS) at Stellenbosch University (SU) recently held is 62nd Annual Academic Day at its Tygerberg Campus in Cape Town.

“The Annual Academic Day is the highlight of our academic calendar and showcases and celebrates our Faculty's ongoing research achievements," Prof Nico Gey van Pittius, FMHS Vice Dean: Research, said at the event.

“This year, close to 300 research projects were presented in either oral or poster presentation format, organised around the Faculty's research focus areas," said Gey van Pittius. He explained that the Faculty's strategic research focus areas are uniquely aligned to both local and international health priorities in order to address the major health challenges facing the African continent. These focus areas are: infectious diseases; non-communicable diseases; mental health and neuroscience; violence, injuries, trauma and rehabilitation; maternal and child health; and health systems strengthening.

Of the 120 oral presentations delivered on the day, five were State of the Art lectures presented by experts in the respective fields. The dean of the FMHS, Prof Jimmy Volmink, delivered an address and a lecture was presented by an international guest speaker, Prof Clifton E Barry III from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) in the United States (US).

In his dean's address, Volmink discussed the results of a recent report on Health Professions Education in South Africa. Volmink led the 10-member study panel who compiled the report on behalf of the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf).

The study panel made a set of 16 recommendations that give a consensus view on transformative efforts needed in the education and training of healthcare professionals in South Africa to consolidate current efforts, and enhance new efforts to address the severe quantitative and qualitative shortfall in the health workforce and thereby improve the health of the nation.

Barry, who is the chief of the Tuberculosis (TB) Research Section in the Laboratory of Clinical Infectious Disease of NIAID and also holds an honorary appointment at SU, presented the case of a compound called oxazolidinones. He explained the research that he and his team have done on this compound (which was initially thought to have no curative effect on TB) to develop it into potentially safe and effective treatment for extensively drug-resistant TB.

An important part of the Annual Academic day is the announcement of the winners of the HD Brede Award for Postgraduate Research in Infectious Diseases. This award honours student research in infectious diseases, and it is open to two categories – biomedical and clinical research categories. Students are judged on the quality of their published research, and the quality of the journals in which they were published.

This year the best paper in the Biomedical Research Category went to Dr Michael Whitfield for his article “The potential use of rifabutin for treatment of patients diagnosed with rifampicin-resistant tuberculosis" that was published in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy. It is the second time that Whitfield has won the award.

The award for best paper in the Clinical Research Category went to Dr Ahmed Abulfathi for his paper “Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Dose Individualization to Achieve Therapeutic Vancomycin Concentrations" that was published in the Journal of Clinical Pharmacology.