Examples of a COVID-19/ICU ward in two public sector hospitals in Tshwane

These photos were at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic while preparations were being made for an influx of patients.

Researchers
  • Professor Ute Feucht
Professor Ute Feucht is the Director of the University of Pretoria’s (UP) Research Centre for Maternal, Fetal, Newborn and Child Health Care Strategies and of the South African Medical Research Council’s Maternal and Infant Health Care Strategies Unit, which is based at UP.

Prof Feucht has a joint appointment in Gauteng, where she works as a paediatrician as part of the Tshwane District Clinical Specialist Team, a multi-disciplinary unit of specialists tasked with improving maternal and child health services, and outcomes at district level.

She graduated in 1995 with a degree in Medicine (cum laude) from Stellenbosch University and specialised in Paediatrics at UP, before obtaining her PhD in Paediatrics at Stellenbosch University.

Prof Feucht’s research addresses broad questions of child health, with a focus on the prevention of mother-to-child transmission, paediatric HIV treatment and care, childhood nutrition and growth, and improving childhood morbidity and mortality. She also works on the development of data systems to improve clinical care and monitor health outcomes. Much of her work is informed by the “survive, thrive, transform” principle, with the ultimate goal of improving the outcomes of children and their families within the communities she works in, in South Africa and beyond.

The work of UP’s Research Centre for Maternal, Infant and Child Health Care Strategies is a collaboration between Obstetrics, Paediatrics, Nutrition, Immunology and Health Care Provision, with a strong nation-wide implementation and research footprint. The centre also works very closely with national and provincial departments of health.
The centre aims to be a leader in the field of perinatal healthcare by improving the neurodevelopment of children and seeking saleable, sustainable solutions to prevent maternal, foetal, newborn and child morbidity and mortality in the primary and secondary levels of care.

Being part of the Umbiflow research team has been a recent research highlight for Prof Feucht. The obstetric section of this work has shown the UmbiflowTM device – a continuous-wave Doppler ultrasound – to be a groundbreaking innovation in the detection and prevention of foetuses that are at risk of stillbirth. A pilot study has been established in nine sites in South Africa. The extension of this work into the paediatric and nutrition fields has highlighted the ability of this device to detect previously undetected in utero growth restriction and has introduced a new, exciting field of research.

• NRF rating: C2
• Research Gate profile: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ute-Feucht


More from this Researcher
  • Professor Jeané Cloete
Professor Jeané Cloete completed her undergraduate studies at Stellenbosch University and has been involved in research at the University of Pretoria (UP) for the past eight years. Her work with the Gauteng Department of Health and her role as a lecturer at UP place her in a unique position to do research across many departments and in the clinical public healthcare setting.

She is currently working on COVID-19 research in the Tshwane District, collaborating with other Tshwane District personnel in family medicine. Her field of research highlights child medical care in the public health sector and helps to improve the care provided to children in South Africa, particularly in Gauteng.

Prof Cloete also works at UP’s Centre for Maternal, Fetal, Newborn and Child Health Care Strategies, and is collaborating with the University’s Department of Immunology on COVID-19 research projects and with the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and Family Medicine on various projects pertaining to the virus.

She regards her current research on COVID-19 among children as a highlight, adding that a recent milestone was the publication of a collaborative article on Omicron in the Tshwane District.

For Prof Cloete, research plays an integral role in advancing current knowledge in any field. In her particular field, she says it also assists with stakeholder decision-making to improve care for children.

Her academic role model is Prof Dankwart Wittenberg. She regards him as a fantastic clinician and teacher who understood the value of research in assisting with management, patient care and decision-making on a personal as well as public health level.
Prof Cloete hopes to contribute to evidence-based research that will improve the care provided to children in South Africa and improve their outcomes.

She assures school learners or undergraduates who are interested in her field that while it may seem intimidating to study and work in the medical field, and that succeeding requires hard work, it is extremely rewarding.

In her spare time, Prof Cloete enjoys cooking, building wooden models, reading and gardening.
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