‘Academically rigorous and socially responsive research’ is what head of the School of Public Health & Family Medicine Professor Landon Myer thought of the 6th School of Public Health and Family Medicine Research Day. Under the theme “Resilience in Public Health”, a predominantly young cohort of researchers presented a diverse array of high-quality work signalling a bright future for Public Health in South Africa.

“Diversity is the Department’s greatest strength,” says Myer.

“Through this diversity, our research day becomes this wonderful jamboree of ideas and thinking from different perspectives and its always pinned together by a theme across the various disciplinary perspectives working in Public Health,” he explains.

Along with a broad spectrum of topics on display, the programme was made more special by a strong showing of young researchers. The emphasis was on junior researchers and postgraduate students, for whom learning how to do oral presentations is a core activity for their training. 

A highlight for Professor Myer was the growing emphasis on environmental health as a field of research. An appropriate area of enquiry considering climate change, water conservation and drought, presentations focused on food security and insecurity. One documentary style presentation explored issues of food wastage and food banks in Cape Town by profiling organisations that redistributes food discarded by restaurants to the those in need.

The use of multimedia was another highlight.

“Traditionally with research days and scientific conferences, we tend to see dry presentations, but what we saw this year was people giving their presentations in the form of multimedia - we had videos and an animated short which focused on health seeking behaviour for TB patients,” Myer explains.

With the common goal of promoting the health of populations on display, the research day fulfilled its objectives to showcase the work of the School and its young researchers to the Faculty community and members of the Provincial Department of Health and the City Health Department.

Prizes were awarded to several individuals for ‘Best Poster by an MPH Student’  and ‘Best Poster by a PhD Student’ in celebration of the outstanding work presented.