Department of Paediatrics and Child Health
Staff
Prof Johan Smith
Prof. Johan Smith (MBCHB, FC
Paed (SA), MMed (Paed), PhD) is the Clinical Head of the Neonatal intensive
care unit and tertiary neonatal services of the Department of Paediatrics &
Child Health, Stellenbosch University and Tygerberg Children’s Hospital in Cape
Town, South Africa. He received his MD degree at the University of Stellenbosch,
and completed postgraduate training in the Department of Paediatrics at the
University of Stellenbosch in South Africa. He completed a research fellowship
at the KUL in Leuven, Belgium in 1990, and subsequently held appointments at
the University of Stellenbosch (Professor of Paediatrics and Neonatology) in
2007. He founded the United South African Neonatal Association (USANA) (https://usana.org.za/),
together with Prof Alan Horn (University of Cape Town), in 2007/2008. USANA is
an affiliate of the South African Paediatric Association and aim to promote and
facilitate collaboration between neonatal services in South Africa, promoting
the use of best-care practices that are evidence-based and the establishing of
communications between neonatal care givers in South Africa. Additional
objectives include the upholding of the rights of neonates by advocating and
promoting the delivery of effective and safe perinatal and neonatal services to
newborn infants according to the African Charter on the rights and Welfare of
the Child (1999) and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child
(1989).
Prof. Smith’s main areas of
interest include continuing medical education of postgraduate clinicians and
his research interest focusses on lung surfactant, neonatal respiratory
assistance in low-resourced healthcare environments, acute and chronic lung
diseases affecting preterm- and term infants and the design and development of
biomedical devices. Prof Smith served as a board member of IPOKRaTES (2002 -
2008), a non-profit foundation which hosts continuing postgraduate medical
education seminars on a global scale. He has hosted a biennial HFOV workshop
between 2000 and 2016, the only such skills development program on the
sub-continent of Africa. He founded the concept of ‘Here be Lungs’ (http://www.herebelungs.co.za/),
an annual, non-profit postgraduate seminar, focussing on state of the art
developments in respiratory-related conditions and diseases. He has published
more than 60 scientific articles in international and national journals. He has
been a reviewer for national and international scientific journals. He has been
an invited speaker at national congresses and symposia in South Africa, Belgium
and New York.
