Clinician Cardiologist to Lead Wits Cardiology to New Heights
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Dr Nqoba Tsabedze has been appointed as Academic Head of Division Cardiology
Dr Nqoba Tsabedze has been appointed as Academic Head of Division Cardiology in the Department of Internal Medicine in the School of Clinical Medicine with effect 1 August 2017.
Dr Tsabedze assumes the role from his previous position as Clinician Scientist and Specialist Cardiologist at the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital and Wits. He has also been recently appointed at the Clinical Head of Cardiology at the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital with effect from 1stOctober 2017.
The Division of Cardiology at Wits runs one of the largest cardiac clinical services in the country as well as the largest clinical training platform for cardiology fellowships in the country. It services the three major academic hospitals as well as all the peripheral hospitals surrounding the academic hospitals and provides tertiary cardiac services to patients from the North West Province.
Tsabedze’ s passion for addressing the overwhelming burden of cardiovascular disease in South Africa and Africa is well known via his innovative research into heart failure and his leadership roles with the Heart Failure Society of South Africa, and the SA Heart Association.
His plan as HOD is to continue the large-scale service commitment encouraging collaboration between the various teaching hospitals as well as introducing new activities to make more of an impact in the area of heart failure. He intends standardising cardiology bedside teaching at both undergrad and registrar level, encouraging consultants to leverage the benefits of research and protecting research time to become more data-driven, re-invigorating lost areas of practice like electrophysiology and ensuring the division plays an active role in public education.
“I am honored to take up a leadership role in the School and hope to play a significant role in transforming the competency and collaboration of the Cardiology staff and fellows across all three academic hospitals,” says Tsabedze. “By extending the division’s research intensity to complement its clinical strength we can continue to lead as an academic centre for cardiology.”
Professor Daynia Ballot, Head of School: Clinical Medicine says: “The School of Clinical Medicine is privileged to have staff of Dr Tsabedze’s calibre. He is an inspiration to junior doctors, demonstrating what can be achieved in a relatively short space of time. I wish him well in his position as head of cardiology and look forward to lots more illustrious research.”
BIOGRAPHY OF DR TSABEDZE
Dr Tsabedze gained his MBBCH from the Witwatersrand University in 2005 and completed his medical internship at Chris Hani Baragwaneth Hospital, achieving the Medical Intern of the Year Award in 2006. As a medical Registrar with the University of Witwatersrand between 2008 and 2011 he became interested in pursuing cardiology as a speciality. In 2011 he was accepted as a fellow of the College of Physicians of South Africa and took up his cardiology fellowship with the Division of Cardiology at Wits in 2012. In 2014 he undertook his Masters of Medicine, researching Peri-procedural myocardial infarction following percutaneous coronary intervention at Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital. This prospective study was published in the International Journal of Cardiology.
In 2015 he was awarded a Carnegie Clinical Research Fellowship to start his PhD on the genetics of idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy, seeking to find answers to why the black population is affected by heart failure without any obvious cause. Through DNA Whole Exome sequencing and family pedigree analysis for heart failure he investigates a possible genetic cause. Working with a cohort of families he is hoping to identify any association with genetic markers. The results of this research will be published soon and will no doubt inform the guidelines for heart failure management for the country.
In addition to his hospital and research work, he also runs the academic programme for fellows training in cardiology and teaches medical students. He is also an executive member of the Heart Failure Society of South Africa, and of the SA Heart Association.
He has been published in six internationally accredited journals, and reviews for the Journal of Cardiovascular Medicine and Cardiology, the Journal of Cardiology & Clinical Research, the Journal of Clinical, Medical and Experimental Images, Cardiology (Journal), the Journal of Diabetes and Metabolic Disorders and the South African Medical Research Council.
In 2017 he was named by Mail& Guardian as an M&G’s Top 200 Young South African.
