SA doctors get chance to study in US

THE Discovery Foundation yesterday announced a new fellowship for South African mid-career doctors to study at the prestigious Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, an initiative it says will help foster the next generation of leaders in academic medicine.

The foundation, formed seven years ago when life and health insurer Discovery concluded a black economic empowerment transaction, set aside R300m over 20 years to train 600 specialists and tackle SA’s shortage of doctors.

SA has just 5.5 doctors per 100,000 people, a level below all of its Bric partners. Brazil has 17, Russia has 43, China has 14 and India six doctors per 100,000 people. Its programmes have already funded training for 150 specialists.

Many of the world’s top medical academics were South Africans working abroad, at great loss to SA, said Discovery Foundation trustee Jonathan Broomberg. The new fellowship was aimed at nurturing and retaining local talent, he said.

The first recipient of the fellowship is Neliswa Gogela, a physician working towards a PhD in hepatology at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town.

She is to receive a R2.1m twoyear grant, and will join the Massachusetts General Hospi- tal’s research and training programme on liver transplantation. Her research will try to understand the significance of genetic variations on the outcome of patients with hepatitis C who undergo liver transplants.

Bongani Mayosi, head of medicine at Groote Schuur hospital, said it was vital for SA to train more healthcare professionals as the country faced a rapidly growing burden of noncommunicable diseases.

Last week, he published research highlighting the “tsunami” of high blood pressure and diabetes that faced the African continent, warning that it had inadequate personnel and treatment methods to cope with the patient load.

The foundation’s latest initiative complements the government’s drive to increase the number of doctors and specialists, and boost SA’s health research output. Inadequate funding, an ageing workforce, and crumbling public health infrastructure are among the factors holding back research.

For example, only 30% of the HIV research taking place in SA is funded by local sources, and SA has only 2.2 full-time equivalent (FTE) researchers per 1,000 employed people, whereas Russia boasts 7.4 FTE researchers per 1,000 employed people, according to the National Health Research Summit report released last year.