​​Speaker​s

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Guest Speaker

Prof Madhukar Pai is a Canada Research Chair in Epidemiology & Global Health at McGill University, Montreal. He is the Director of the McGill International TB Centre.

Madhu Pai did his medical training and community medicine residency in Vellore, India. He completed his PhD in epidemiology at UC Berkeley, and a postdoctoral fellowship at the UCSF.

Madhu's research is mainly focused on improving the diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis. His research is supported by grant funding from the Gates Foundation, Grand Challenges Canada, and Canadian Institutes of Health Research. He is recipient of the Union Scientific Prize, Chanchlani Global Health Research Award, Haile T. Debas Prize, and David Johnston Faculty & Staff Award. He is a member of the Royal Society of Canada, and a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences.

State of the ​​Art speakers​

Brian Allwood is a consultant pulmonologist in the Division of Pulmonology at the Stellenbosch University and Tygerberg Hospital. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of the Witwatersrand, and completed his training as a Specialist Physician and Pulmonologist at the University of Cape Town (UCT). He has also attained a Masters in Public Health, and completed a PhD evaluating the link between tuberculosis and subsequent development of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Recently, he completed a Fellowship in clinical pulmonary hypertension at Massachusetts General Hospital (Boston, USA). His major research interest is the consequences and management of post-tuberculosis respiratory disorders, and he has established a dedicated post-tuberculosis clinic. 

He recently chaired the 1^st International Post-Tuberculosis Symposium Steering Committee and remains passionate about the health needs of people in under resourced communities, and in particular Post-TB Lung Disease, which remains a difficult problem for many people in his daily work. ​

​Talitha Crowley is a senior lecturer at the Department of Nursing and Midwifery, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University (SU), South Africa. At SU, she facilitates and teaches at undergraduate, postgraduate specialist, master's degree, and PhD programme level. She graduated with a PhD in Nursing from SU in 2018.  She is a grant holder, of which she received a grant from the National Research Foundation in South Africa, to promote and further her post-doctoral work. Her research interests include Primary Care Nursing, self-management of chronic conditions and adolescent care. 

Professor René English is a Medical Doctor and Public Health Medicine Specialist and holds a Doctorate Degree. She has experience in clinical and health systems research and in the development of responsive and innovative health systems solutions. She developed the first syndromic respiratory guideline in South Africa, then called the Practical Approach to Lung Health in South Africa (PALSA). She was head of the Health Systems Research Unit at the Health Systems Trust, and has served as a co-editor for the South African Health Review and District Health Barometer publications. She was a past fellow of the Africa Science Leadership Programme. She is currently the Head of the Health Systems and Public Health Division in the Department of Global Health in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at Stellenbosch University. She served on the South African Health Ministerial Task Team for Human Resources for Health and was the Chair of the Information, Monitoring and Evaluation Workstream. She has also served on the South African Lancet National Commission on High Quality Health Systems.

Dr Stephanie Griffith-Richards
B.Sc. (Physiotherapy) (Stell)) M.B.Ch.B.1999 (Stell) M.Med.Rad.D. (Stell) F.C.Rad Diag. (S.A.) (US)

I qualified as a radiologist in 2008 at Stellenbosch University, obtaining both the M.Med. Diagnostic Radiology and F.C.Rad (S.A.) I had a brief stint in private practice and started working at Tygerberg Hospital as a consultant Radiologist in 2011. I have special interest in Thoracic Imaging, specifically HRCT of interstitial lung diseases as well as TB and post TB sequelae.

Coenie Koegelenberg a clinician working in Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. After completing his training in General Internal Medicine in 2001 at Stellenbosch University, he spent 30 months working in the UK, where he qualified as a specialist. He returned to South Africa to complete his training in Respiratory Medicine, and was appointed as a consultant in Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine at Tygerberg Academic Hospital in 2005. He was also appointed as an associate professor in Pulmonology at Stellenbosch University in 2012 and promoted to professor in 2017. His research interests over the past decade have included lung cancer, infectious and pleural diseases, assessment of lung resection candidates and more recently applied transthoracic ultrasound and interventional pulmonology. Coenie is the author of more than 140 peer-reviewed papers and 14 textbook chapters. Coenie Koegelenberg is involved with the teaching of basic ultrasound skills to trainees in General Internal Medicine, and more advance skills to fellows in Respiratory Medicine. He is also the current president of the South African Thoracic Society (SATS). During the past six months he has spent most of his time and energy on the management of Covid-19 patients in Tygerberg Hospital and is actively involved Covid-19 related observational and therapeutic research.

Usha Lalla is a Specialist Physician and Intensivist who graduated from the University of Cape Town. She has achieved extensive postgraduate experience in both the United Kingdom and South Africa, qualifying as a Specialist Physician in both countries.  She attained her sub-specialization qualification as an Intensivist in South and has dedicated herself to rendering an excellent and efficient Critical Care service that is of the highest possible standards within the prevailing financial and human resources constraints.

She has a specific research interest in Infections in the South African ICU and is currently directing the designated COVID ICU at Tygerberg Hospital.

​Dr Kerry-Ann Louw is a consultant psychiatrist and senior lecturer at Stellenbosch University. She currently runs consultation-liaison psychiatry services at Tygerberg Hospital. Kerry completed both her undergraduate and postgraduate training at the University of Cape Town obtaining her FC Psych qualification in 2011, MMed in 2012 and MPhil in Liaison Mental Health in 2015. Her special interests include the complex interactions between psychiatric and medical illnesses, chronic pain, clinician wellness and women's mental health.

Prof Hassan Mahomed
M​BChB, MMed (C​ommunity Health) PhD (Public Health) 

Prof Hassan Mahomed works currently as a Public Health Medicine specialist at the Western Cape Government: Health and Division of Health Systems and Public Health in the Department of Global Health at Stellenbosch University. In the Department of Health, he provides technical support for planning, monitoring and evaluation, health systems reform, health information systems development and outbreak response. He played a key role in co-ordinating the province's response to the COVID-19 epidemic. At Stellenbosch University, he teaches public health and runs a clinical trials module. He supervises both masters and PhD students. 

Prof Peter Subirakwenda Nyasulu PhD MScMed MACE, is A/Professor of Epidemiology in the Division of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. He is a Member of the American College of Epidemiology and an Honorary Associate Professor of Epidemiology at the School of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.

He is a member of the Management Board of the Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University; Member of the Postgraduate committee in the Department of Global Health, Stellenbosch University; Member of the Health Research Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University; An External Expert member of Health Research Ethics Committee of the Human Sciences Research Council, South Africa; An Executive  Member of the Mzuzu Healthcare Foundation, Malawi; an Expert panel member of the National Research Foundation, South Africa; Member of the Expert Review Committee of the Primary Healthcare and Adult Hospital Level of the National Department of Health, South Africa and Member of the Peer Review Panel of Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) for Evaluating journals of other disciplines.

Prof Subirakwenda Nyasulu is a C-Rated Scientist with extensive experience in epidemiological and clinical research in infectious diseases including HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, pneumococcal diseases among others. He is also actively involved in the COVID-19 research response initiative of the Stellenbosch University, Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences. He has an extensive network of research collaboration both locally and internationally. He is a peer reviewer in many journals and serves on the Editorial Board of the BMC Infectious Diseases Journal. His publication record can be accessed at https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=X2JsbpQAAAAJ&hl=en

 

Dr. Arifa Parker
MBChB, MMed Internal Medicine, FCP (SA), Cert ID (SA) 

Arifa Parker is a general physician and infectious diseases specialist working at Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa. She a senior lecturer in the Divisions of Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at Stellenbosch University. She completed her undergraduate and postgraduate degrees at Stellenbosch University, and was awarded a Discovery Foundation subspecialist award to complete her training in Infectious Diseases. She is actively involved in the hospital's COVID-19 response. She is currently pursuing a PhD in HIV, obesity and SARS-CoV-2, while being a mom to her 3 year-old twins.

Helena Rabie is a paediatrician and infectious diseases clinicians at Tygerberg Hospital and associate professor of Paediatrics at Stellenbosch University. She has extensive experience managing children with infectious diseases and is involved in research concerning best practice in the management of tuberculosis and HIV. During the COVID-19 she assisted with the hospital preparedness plan as well as the screening and management of children with COVID-19 and Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome. She is an investigator in the “COVID-KIDS" project.

 

 

Dr Andrew Redfern is a general paediatrician and sub-specialist in Developmental Paediatrics. He currently works in the Paediatric Emergency and Ambulatory department at Tygerberg Hospital. He is chair of the Paediatric Emergency Care South Africa special interest group of EMSSA and a member of the South Africa Paediatric Association national executive. He really enjoys teaching and connecting with fellow clinician learners on twitter (@PaedCapeTown). 

 

Dr Marieke​ van der Zalm is a pediatrician with a keen interest in pediatric infectious diseases and respiratory medicine. Her PhD was on the role of respiratory pathogens in a large birth cohort study in the Netherlands. In 2013, she joined the Desmond Tutu TB Centre (DTTC), Department of Pediatrics and Child Health of Stellenbosch University. Her major research area is to investigate the impact of TB and respiratory viruses on lung health. This work is supported by a career development grant from the European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) (2017-2020) and recently by a NIH-K43 emerging global leader award. 

 

Jimmy Volmink is Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences and Professor in the Department of Global Health at Stellenbosch University.  His special interests include promoting evidence-based decision making, addressing health inequalities and building research capacity.  

Prof Volmink is an elected member of the Academy of Science of South Africa and an elected Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.  He has also received the Leverhulme Medal for Distinguished Contribution from Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and a Recognition Award for his contributions to Evidence-based Health Care in Africa from the SA Medical Research Council.  

Twitter handle: @jvolmink