SOUTH Africa should be spending more on training medical professionals to conduct research, says a Dutch medical expert who is in the country as part of a trade mission.
A very small number of doctors in South Africa pursue PhD studies after graduating.
According to Jan Nouwen, of the Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam, training doctors to conduct research could also be a solution to some of South Africa’s medical problems.
The Erasmus Medical Centre is the 23rd-biggest employer in the Netherlands and runs training programmes for all 28 officially registered medical specialities.
Dr Nouwen was speaking yesterday on the sidelines of a networking session with South African company representatives at the Protea Hotel OR Tambo.
The session included local representatives from a range of industries including agrifood, horticulture, the creative industries, as well as transport and logistics.
Also participating were delegates from the Dutch healthcare industry, including from companies such as Philips Africa and Royal HaskoningDHV.
Contacted for comment, the deputy dean of research at the University of Cape Town, Tania Douglas, said there was a critical need for training in research due to the low number of graduates that obtained PhDs. Prof Douglas said the main issues hampering a culture of research in SA were the lack of funding to conduct research and the lack of trained supervisors to oversee research projects.
Partnering with international institutions could solve these issues and open up funding opportunities.
Prof Douglas said another compelling reason for such mutually beneficial partnerships was the exposure that foreign institutions received to infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, HIV and malaria.
Dr Nouwen said the Erasmus Medical Centre was discussing setting up medical rescue unit with the University of Cape Town. He believed that the main investment for South Africa’s overstretched healthcare system should be in education.
"I think what is lacking in a lot of countries is that there is not so much stress on research, there is a lot of stress on how to train as many health professionals as possible … because there is a shortage and that hampers healthcare, but the other thing is the lack of research."
Dr Nouwen said if research were integrated into doctors’ training programmes, medical professionals could ultimately improve the healthcare system they were part of.
He said discussion with partner universities in South Africa was important to create collaborative research programmes and conduct them within South Africa so that students remained in the country, conducting most of their research here.
This was because South Africa had enough problems and issues on which to conduct studies. He said the country had the facilities to perform these forms of investigations.
I think what is lacking in a lot of countries is that there is not so much stress on research, there is a lot of stress on training more health professionals
