Friday, 29 March, 2024
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Africa’s first masters in interventional cardiology launched at UCT

Thanks to a collaboration with the private healthcare sector, the University of Cape Town (UCT) faculty of health sciences has introduced Africa’s first masters degree in interventional cardiology, a heart medicine sub-specialty that provides minimally invasive, image-guided diagnosis and treatment of cardiac medical conditions.

Professor Mpiko Ntsekhe, head of the division of cardiology in the UCT faculty of health sciences, says that the new two-year masters degree “was made possible by a partnership between the university, Netcare Sunninghill Hospital and internationally-renowned local interventional cardiologist, Professor Farrel Hellig, who has been appointed visiting associate professor of cardiology at UCT.

“This is an important first for South Africa as an academic training qualification in interventional cardiology, which is becoming an increasingly important sub-speciality both locally and around the world, has never before been offered anywhere in Sub-Saharan Africa,” said Ntsekhe.

“Previously local cardiologists have had to travel abroad to the US or Europe if they wished to obtain formal accredited academic training in interventional cardiology. Alternatively, they would have had to spend years gaining experience in intricate interventional techniques under the guidance of an experienced mentor if they wished to specialise in this field,” he said.

“The two-year degree involves a year of clinical training and a further year of practical training with Professor Hellig. Having studied abroad extensively, Professor Hellig has vast experience in interventional cardiology and performs hundreds of these intricate procedures every year.

Hellig said that he regarded education as crucial to the future of South African healthcare. “It is humbling and an honour to be appointed as an associate professor at UCT Medical School and to contribute to the advancement of the cardiology profession in Africa in this way. The UCT division of cardiology must be acknowledged for the tremendous vision they have shown in developing this public-private partnership in order to broaden educational opportunities in South Africa.”

Hellig says that the first candidate commenced training at the beginning of March this year. He is a South African born cardiologist who returned from New Zealand in order to participate in the new interventional post-graduate programme. “It is gratifying that the course, which will currently take on one trainee at a time, has been able to attract scarce medical skills back to South Africa.”

“Interventional cardiology allows us to perform a wide spectrum of procedures ranging from the unblocking of blocked blood vessels with stents, to heart valve replacement and repair, using minimally invasive techniques which are far less traumatic to the body than open heart surgery.

“Patients recover from these procedures much more rapidly, with most being discharged from hospital within just 24 hours of the procedure. In addition, we are able to perform procedures on highly compromised patients who might not have survived open heart surgery.”

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