Prof. Bongani Mayosi

Topic:
Recent Advances On The Treatment And Prevention Of Rheumatic Fever And Rheumatic Heart Disease

Date:
Saturday 17 September

Synopsis:
The talk will present a new comprehensive strategy for the eradication of rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease in South Africa: the A.S.A.P. Programme. The A.S.A.P. Programme enlists the help of doctors and other health practitioners in efforts to raise Awareness, increase Surveillance, and engage in Advocacy, all of which are intended to Prevent and eliminate this condition in our life time. The talk will give practical examples of how members of the South African Medical Association could contribute to stop rheumatic heart disease A.S.A.P.

Prof. Shan Naidoo

Topic:
A Public Health Medicine Perspective on Prevention

Date:
Saturday 17 September

Synopsis:
Public Health Medicine is the branch of medicine focussing on the prevention of health problems at a population level. It identifies population health problems and its determinants, identifies the best approaches to deal with these problems including preventing them and promotes the health of the public at large.

Public Health Medicine also concerns itself with the management of health services, personnel and other resources in a manner that has the most impact and does research on these matters with the aim of providing an evidence base to public health policy. It also has an important advocacy role in this regard. This talk will focus on the public health challenges facing South Africa viewed from a public health medicine perspective and argue from an evidence based approach the various means to prevent these at a population level.

Martin Veller

Topic:
Recognising and managing patients at risk of developing a heart attack or stroke

Date:
Saturday 17 September

Synopsis:
Atherosclerosis is the major cause for morbidity and mortality the world over, mostly by inducing myocardial infarction and stroke. While this condition is largely associated with modern lifestyle changes, it is well established that early intervention can reduce the risk of these complications from occurring. Such interventions should ideally be initiated early in those individuals at risk and therefore tools to make the subclinical diagnosis are currently in vogue. The current evidence for these tools and the benefit of intervention in individuals so identified will be explored.

Prof. Andrew Walabo

Topic:
Advances In Predictive, Preventive And Personalized Medicine: A Primer For Change

Date:
Saturday 17 September

Synopsis:
The advent of mapping the Human Genome and the associated technology of genomics, proteomics and metabolomics have enabled determination of clinical prognosis and drug selection based on identification of susceptibility genes, phenotypes and subclinical biomarkers, and this, in turn, has lead to development of a new field of predictive, preventive and personalized medicine. The ability to predict susceptibility to disease or drug toxicity (predictive medicine) has enabled individuals to adopt preventive strategies based on dietary or other measures such as bio-monitoring for early detection (preventive medicine), but even more important for clinical pharmacology, it has enabled the selection of drugs based not only on disease susceptibility profile but also on the individual's drug tolerance (personalized medicine). Therefore, in the near future more medicines will be utilized for prevention than for cure. Unfortunately, although several biomarkers for many diseases have been identified, they are not yet at clinical stage mainly because of uncertainties on their predictive strength in clinical settings. However, the few successful ones have created optimism on the role of the "~omics" in clinical medicine. As such, clinicians need to familiarize themselves with development; it is not whether it is possible, it is a question time, a primer for change.

Prof. Lynn Webber

Topic:
Global expansion and the consequences of HIV

Date:
Thursday 15 September

Synopsis:
The world is not only expanding through population growth but also through the emergence of mega-cities. In turn, world travel enables each individual at some time in their lifetime to reach regions far-distant to their birth-place. HIV appeared to emerge as a significant disease in the early 1980s, which has now lead to a massive pandemic leaving no country untouched. The macro-development of HIV transmission is epidemiologically profound. Yet the micro-development or the emergence of minor variants of HIV is spectacular. This presentation will focus on the survival brilliance of this retrovirus.