A spirit of collaboration and compassion is flourishing at Witrand Hospital, thanks to the innovative Taking HANDS community engagement project led by the Presence team of the North-West University (NWU) School of Nursing and NuMIQ research focus area. This inspiring initiative is transforming the hospital environment, fostering unity among staff, students and patients, and setting a new standard for quality care.
Prof Welma Lubbe from the Quality in Nursing and Midwifery (NuMIQ) research focus area at the North-West University (NWU) has been appointed as the nursing representative on the global committee for the Newborn Brain Society.
Prof Lubbe, who is the director of NuMIQ and focuses her research on neonatal care in the Faculty of Health Sciences, will represent the nursing profession in an international forum focused on newborn brain health.
By Prof Ushotanefe Useh
Universities in Africa stand at a crossroads today. While they continue to produce research, award degrees and rank in global academic listings, an uncomfortable question lingers: are they truly serving the societies that fund and sustain them? Are their graduates solving the most pressing problems of the continent, or are they simply joining the long queues of unemployed youth?
In order to enhance healthcare throughout Africa, it is crucial to equip frontline healthcare workers with the necessary tools and confidence to drive change. However, their hard work often goes unnoticed and unappreciated.
In drug development, a “magic bullet” is a compound designed to kill disease-causing organisms without harming healthy cells. Such compounds are needed now more than ever because diseases such as tuberculosis, malaria and sleeping sickness, which kill more than 10 million people each year, are becoming resistant to existing treatments.
“Many of these diseases are becoming harder to treat due to drug resistance,” said Prof Richard Beteck, research professor in synthetic medicinal chemistry at the Centre of Excellence for Pharmaceutical Sciences at the North-West University (NWU).
Cardiovascular diseases remain among the world’s leading killers, but everyday foods like rooibos tea and broccoli may hold the key to protecting the heart, according to new research from the North-West University (NWU).
This was the core finding of the PhD study of Dr Sinenhlanhla Xoliswa Happiness Mthembu, who explored plant-based compounds that could help counter heart damage caused by metabolic disorders.
NWU vice-chancellor, Prof. Bismark Tyobeka, pleads for aligned academic hospital in North West
Prof. Bismark Tyobeka, principal and vice-chancellor of the North-West University (NWU), has lauded Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi’s announcement that plans are in place to add to the country’s ten academic hospitals.
By Gofaone Motsamai
In public clinics across the North West Province, healthcare workers share limited resources and juggle growing patient numbers – all while trying to meet the standards of the Ideal Clinic Realisation and Maintenance (ICRM) programme.
Introduced in 2013, the programme is a national strategy aimed at improving service quality in public primary health care (PHC) facilities and is part of the national Department of Health’s plan to roll out National Health Insurance (NHI).
Switzerland’s recent approval of Coartem Baby, the first antimalarial treatment specifically designed for newborns and very young children, is a major step forward in tackling one of Africa’s most pressing public health challenges, says Dr Fortunate Mokoena, a malaria expert at the North-West University (NWU). Developed by Novartis with support from the non-profit Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV), Coartem Baby is expected to be fast-tracked for approval in eight African countries that participated in the joint regulatory assessment.
Tissue bioprinting and regenerative medicine are critical new frontiers in advancing human health. In partnership with a top Spanish researcher, the NWU has dramatically expanded its bioprinting research and innovation capabilities in its quest to find alternatives to animal testing and enhance personalised medicine.