HPRU team return from three week placement at University of Cape Town

Sabine Bou-Antoun, Hannah Lishman and Bernard Hernandez-Perez

University of Cape Town and Imperial College London: Global Health Fellows Programme 2016

In June 2016, Hannah Lishman, Researcher and PhD student, Bernard Hernandez-Perez, Invention for Innovation (i4i) Engineer and Sabine Bou-Antoun, PhD student were awarded positions on a Global Health Fellows Programme hosted by the University of Cape Town (UCT), which was attended by researchers from UCT, partner institutes across Africa and Imperial College London. The 5 day programme challenged the HPRU team and other participants to assess our their research skills and develop their interdisciplinary awareness. Presentations were given by researchers with great insight and experience in global Health research and collaboration; including Professor JoAnne Flynn, Professor Marian Jacobs, Professor Kit Vaughan and Professor Robert J Wilkinson. The programme was extremely rewarding and enabled the HPRU team to forge links with academics and researchers based across Africa and indeed within Imperial College London.

In a research environment where funding is increasingly drawn to collaborative research, cross university research is being greatly encouraged. The HPRU colleagues were fortunate enough to spend three weeks working with Professor Marc Mendelson, Head of the Infectious Diseases and HIV medicine division at UCT, and colleagues at Groote Schuur Hospital (GSH). Prof Mendelson hosted the work placement, facilitated a widely attended meeting where the team presented on their research topics and were introduced to researchers, clinicians, microbiologists, pharmacists and contacts from other disciplines. They met with colleagues from UCT, GSH, National Laboratory Services, Western Cape Government, Bluebird IMS (private healthcare) and the Foreign Commonwealth Office. The numerous meetings helped them in better understanding the current Antimicrobial Stewardship programmes, the surveillance systems and the availability and quality of data in the Western Cape and across South Africa. They also attended antimicrobial stewardship rounds in GSH, Tygerberg Hospital, Victoria Hospital and Mitchell’s Plain Hospital (a district-level hospital, thought to be a success story for public hospitals in deprived localities), which informed on the differences in the Antimicrobial Stewardship challenges faced in Cape Town hospitals compared to those in London.

The time in Cape Town allowed the HPRU team to meet international researchers, examine opportunities to collaborate in the near future and develop research together.