Dr Heike Geduld is a pioneer of emergency medicine. She was part of the very first class of emergency physicians that graduated in Africa 12 years ago, and has since made great strides as a leader, educator and advocate in this important field in medicine.
As newly appointed associate professor and head of the Division of Emergency Medicine at Stellenbosch University, Geduld hopes to increase the emergency care footprint in Africa by enticing even more doctors to specialise in emergency medicine.
“My primary interest is the education and integration of emergency medicine into the curriculum, particularly around the approach to emergency and skills training. In the next five years, there will be a big focus on how we train emergency medicine in both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. I would also like to establish relationships with all the other medical specialities. Emergency medicine is one of the few cross-platform specialities and there are many opportunities for research collaboration, developing clinical protocols together, and having an integrative approach across the healthcare system."
Geduld brings a wealth of knowledge and experience. After graduating as emergency physician at Emergency Medicine Cape Town (EMCT), a joint specialist training programme of the universities of Stellenbosch and Cape Town, and the first in Africa, she was appointed as head of Education and Training at EMCT.
“I have been directing the education and training of emergency medicine specialists across both universities since 2012. However, now that emergency medicine training is becoming more established in South Africa, we have decided to split the original joint training programme in Cape Town, so that each university can have its own head of emergency medicine, and drive emergency medicine as a speciality within its own medical faculty. As a result, I have been appointed as associate professor and head of the Division of Emergency Medicine at Stellenbosch University."
Emergency Medicine is a relatively new specialisation in South Africa that focuses on the essential knowledge and skills needed to rapidly diagnose and treat a patient who is experiencing an emergency due to acute illness or injury.
“An emergency physician is required to make very quick decisions on the best course of action to save a patient's life," Geduld explains. “There has always been this assumption among lay people that any healthcare provider will know what to do in an emergency, however, that is not necessarily true. The typical healthcare training of the past was more focused on disease and diagnosis, and did not include a structured way of thinking about emergency cases. We are working hard to address this knowledge gap by providing basic short courses and including emergency medicine in both undergraduate and postgraduate training, with emergency physician training at the pinnacle."
Geduld is a self-confessed workaholic who loves what she does. Besides her role as educator and trainer, she also serves as president of the College of Emergency Medicine of South Africa, director of the Colleges of Medicine of South Africa, and, until November last year, as president of the African Federation for Emergency Medicine.
