The Dr Coffee Podcast

Dr Nox Mpambukeli & I were privileged to be invited to attend the Philips Future of Health LIVE South Africa event in Johannesburg on the 23rd of August 2023. We got the opportunity to interact with some incredible industry experts and leaders, some of whom were the panelists in the LinkedIn LIVE discussion. They had some phenomenal things to say to junior doctors and medical students in South Africa, so we thought we would share their thoughts with you in this episode!

Professor Glenda Gray is the CEO and President of the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC). Prof Gray is a qualified paediatrician and co-founder of the internationally recognised Perinatal HIV Research Unit in Soweto, South Africa. Prior to her appointment at the SAMRC, she was the Executive Director of the Perinatal HIV Research Unit, an affiliate of Wits University. Glenda’s global profile includes a role as Co-PI of the HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN), an international collaboration for the development of HIV/AIDS prevention vaccines. She received South Africa’s highest honour – the Order of Mapungubwe - for her pioneering research in PMTCT. She is a member of the board of GARDP, AAHI and a member of the WHO TB-STAG.

Dr Katlego Mothudi is the Managing Director of the Board of Healthcare Funders (BHF), an industry representative body for medical aid schemes, administrators, and managed care providers. The BHF has a presence in eight countries across Southern Africa, including Lesotho, Namibia, Zimbabwe, and Botswana. Dr Mothudi has previously served as a Medical Advisor and Clinical Executive for Metropolitan Health Group, was the Managing Director for Aid for AIDS within the AfroCentric Health stable, before becoming the Executive Head of Clinical Services and Operations at Sizwe Medical Fund. Dr Mothudi is an advocate for ethical leadership and serves on several boards and various industry committees. These include the Health and Welfare Sector Education and Training Authority (HWSETA), the Health Sector Anti-Corruption Forum and Steering Committee which were set up by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU). Dr Mothudi holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry and Applied Chemistry, an MBChB degree from MEDUNSA, and training in Sports Medicine. The latter gave him the opportunity to work with various sports organisations and teams, culminating as the Chief Medical Officer for the Referees’ Headquarters during the 2009 FIFA Confederation and the 2010 World Cups

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In this episode, I had the privilege of interviewing Professor Shabir Moosa, to ask him all about the NHI and how it might feasibly work to fund quality healthcare in South Africa. Professor Moosa is a Family Physician in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits)). He has a Diploma in Primary Health Care Service Management, A Masters in Family Medicine (MEDUNSA-Limpopo), a Masters in Business Administration (Wits Business School) (2011) and a PhD from Ghent University) (2015). He is focused on practice in Chiawelo Community Practice in Soweto.

Professor Moosa has a history of general practice, community and political activism in rural Kwa-Zulu Natal and Eastern Cape Provinces (the old Transkei region) having lived in Kokstad from 1990 to 2004. He moved to Johannesburg in 2004 and has been deeply involved in development, service, training, and research of Family Medicine in Johannesburg and Gauteng. He is actively involved in developing best practice models of Family Medicine, including creating community practices in Soweto as a contracting model for the emerging national health insurance system in South Africa.

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For more, visit our Linktree URL at https://linktr.ee/drcoffeeza, or email us at [email protected]

I was recently invited to participate in and facilitate the first Umsebeni Employment Series Conversation, organised by the Office of Student Success at the University of the Witwatersrand. For those who don’t know, the Office of Student Success was started by the Faculty of Health Sciences at WITS University to enable the holistic development, wellbeing and support of all health sciences students towards their academic success. The theme of the conversation was “Preparing for the workplace”, and took place on the 20th of July 2023. I was privileged to be seated with the other panelists an guests on the Podcast:

Our book review in this episode is presented by Chantelle Guise-Brown, 5th year MBChB student at Stellenbosch University.

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Our Linktree URL - https://linktr.ee/drcoffeeza

Welcome to the Dr Coffee Podcast, brought to you by IndemniMed! In this week’s coffee with consultants feature, I interview Dr Nick Brits, representing Urology. Dr Brits is originally from KwaZulu Natal, and completed his undergraduate degree at UCT in 2011. After internship in Pietermaritzburg he moved to Johannesburg and worked as a Medical Officer at Charlotte Maxeke and Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospitals. He subsequently specialised in Urology at Wits and now works in private practice. Dr Brits is an Honorary Consultant at the University of Witwatersrand and is actively involved in undergraduate and post-graduate teaching and training in the field of Urology. When he’s not practising his craft, Dr Brits enjoys spending time outdoors hiking, fishing, playing sport and spending time with his family and children.

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In this week’s episode, I interview Dr Chris Mathew. Chris is currently the Health Informatics Officer for the private hospital group, Netcare. In this role, he also serves as a the clinical lead for Africa’s largest EMR system, through which Netcare has established the first fully digitised hospitals in South Africa. Prior to joining Netcare, Chris trained as a medical doctor and then went on to complete an MBA as a Louis Dreyfus-Weidenfeld Hoffman Saïd Scholar, followed by a Masters in International Health & Tropical Medicine as a ExxonMobil Global Health Scholar, both at the University of Oxford. He is passionate about healthcare and technology, the ever expanding intersection of the two and the role this will have in improving healthcare for all South Africans.

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Welcome to Espresso Shots by the Dr Coffee Podcast. Today we’re talking about organ donation, with Jonty Wright and Naamiz Nagdee from Save Seven.

Save Seven Contacts

In this week’s "Coffee with Consultants" feature, I interviewed Dr Tracey Ferreira, representing the frequently requested specialty of Anaesthesiology. Dr Ferreira is a fairly recently-qualified anaesthesiologist currently working in private practice in a number of locations and with a variety of surgeons. She’s also a mom of two gorgeous small kids, and has great advice for our women in medicine about how to pursue dual dreams of specialising and motherhood. 

Welcome our new main sponsors of the podcast: IndemniMed, by Money & Medicine! - https://www.moneyandmedicine.co.za/

This episode also features a sponsored content segment with Seventh Star Tuition - https://seventhstar.co.za/

Podcast recommendation from our guest: The Accrac podcast - http://accrac.com/ - Anesthesia and Critical Care Reviews and Commentary

Collaborate with us by completing this Google form:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSer0-PZSPt4IBA3tLTcVxdiqhzklzvN9x5zpwQwnnrieHQxig/viewform?usp=sf_link

Let's talk about the National Health Insurance, or NHI, which was recently passed in parliament. As a young doctor or a medical student, you need to at least know the basic concepts of the why, what and how of the NHI, for your own career as well as so you can help your relatives and member of the public understand and make sense of their own feelings of the bill. So will the NHI work? What do you think?

If you’re interested in diving a little deeper, I’ve included a bunch of resources about the NHI below:

If you feel like I missed out some major detail, please let me know in the comments or via email at the podcast’s email address - [email protected]. And of course, let me know what else you think we should cover in our 15minute Espresso Shot podcasts. Thanks for listening and thank you for your support!

In this week’s coffee with consultants feature, we hear from Dr Lliam Brannigan, representing the sub-specialty of critical care medicine and intensive care. Dr Brannigan is an intensive care specialist and HOD at the Wits Donald Gordon Medical Centre critical care department. He has a research and clinical interest in liver transplantation and high risk surgery, and especially failure to rescue, and is a long standing member of numerous specialist societies. Lliam was a Helicopter EMS doctor on Echo 1 and then completed a speciality in anaesthesia before moving onto a critical care fellowship. We had a brilliant chat about medicine in South africa, as well as some of the challenges we face as young doctors, such as shortages of posts and opportunities, and lack of senior support and encouragement. This episode was recorded over Zoom, & is also available as a video episode on Youtube. Even if you prefer to listen to the audio format of this podcast, please take a minute to head over to the Dr Coffee Podcast Youtube channel, subscribe and give a like to this video. I know it’s a bit of work on your part, however it’s simply the best way to support the growth of the podcast and let the algorithm know this is something junior doctors want to hear. Thank you so much for your support!

It’s the Dr Coffee Podcast’s 1st birthday on the 1st of July 2023! Our very 1st episode with Dr Mark Torres-Holmes was released on the 1st of July 2022. Since then, the podcast has gained over 2000 followers on Instagram, almost 450 followers on Spotify, had over 17 000 downloads across all platforms, sporadically topped the Apple Podcast charts in its category, and become South Africa’s top locally-produced medical podcast. And this is just the beginning! In a little over a week’s time, we will be letting you in on a little secret: about an exciting new long-term corporate partner with the podcast, one I believe truly has the success of junior doctors at heart. The podcast has also opened up new opportunities for engagement with various levels and healthcare stakeholders, so I’m really excited to be amplifying the voices and interests of our country’s junior doctors and medical students. To that end, if you’d like to let us know about a project or cause initiated by a junior doctor or medical student that you feel deserves airtime on the podcast, or if you’d like to collaborate with us or purchase sponsored content segments on the podcast, please get in touch. We can provide exposure and advertising to our audience in a number of ways, whether it be collaborating on an event at your medical school with a student society or interest-group, featuring guests in episodes or special segments, or on the podcast itself in the form of pre-roll, mid-roll or post-roll ads. All university, student, or charity initiatives are given airtime free of charge. If you believe, like we do, in the potential and talent of south africa’s junior doctors and future doctors, and would like to work together to make a positive difference, send an email to the podcast’s email address, [email protected].

Well, that’s it for this week’s episode. I’d like to take a moment to direct you briefly to our Linktree URL: https://linktr.ee/drcoffeeza and our instagram page, @DrCoffeeZA. There you’ll find links to all our podcast episodes, some of the collaborators we’ve been working with, as well as a Google Form you can complete if you’re interested in working with the Dr Coffee Podcast. Thank you for your support, and we’ll see you in Episode 40!

In this episode, we feature members of the Wits Students Surgical Society ("Wits SurgSoc"), and their efforts to fundraise for the Smile Foundation by climbing Mount Kilimanjaro - #KiliChallenge2023. I had the privilege of interviewing four members of the team aiming to summit Mt Kilimanjaro in December 2023. This interview took place at the Smile Foundation offices in Hyde park Johannesburg, where we met to discuss the WHY behind the WHAT of their KiliChallenge, and how we can get behind them and support their charity fundraising efforts. My guests on this episode are future doctors Danielle Olivier, Sarah Benn and Rebecca Groome, all current students in 4th year medicine at Wits, and Jonty Bleeker (a 2nd year medical student). We unpacked their reasons for climbing as well as some of the exciting projects they have in store to ensure they reach their target of raising half a million rand for the Smile Foundation over the next few months.

Links to all important pages on Instagram mentioned in this episode:

Our ⁠Linktree URL⁠: https://linktr.ee/drcoffeeza

Well, that’s it for this week’s episode. I’d like to take a moment to direct you briefly to our Linktree URL (above), and our instagram page, @DrCoffeeZA. There you’ll find links to all our podcast episodes, some of the collaborators we’ve been working with, as well as a Google Form you can complete if you’re interested in working with the Dr Coffee Podcast. Whether it be collaborating on an event at your medical school with a student society or interest-group, featuring guests in episodes or special segments, or if you’d like to advertise on the podcast with pre-roll, mid-roll or post-roll ads. If you believe, like we do, in the potential and talent of south africa’s junior doctors and future doctors, and would like to work together to make a positive difference, hit us up via the Google Form and we’ll be in touch soon. You can also email us on the podcast’s email address, at [email protected]

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