We are delighted to announce the appointment of Associate Professor Clint Hendrikse as Head: Division of Emergency Medicine within the Department of Family, Community and Emergency Care starting on 1 January 2023.

I am deeply grateful to Professor Lee Wallis for his unwavering leadership and significant contribution to the discipline of Emergency Medicine – not just in South Africa but across the continent. I would like to congratulate and wish him all the very best in his new role as the WHO Geneva Lead for Emergency Care with overall responsibility for Emergency and Critical Care.

I would also like to thank Associate Professor Peter Hodkinson for his valuable service as Acting Head of the Division of Emergency Medicine.

Hendrikse completed his undergraduate training (MBChB) at Stellenbosch University in 2004 and obtained his Fellowship of the College of Emergency Medicine (FCEM) in 2014. He holds a Master of Medicine in Emergency Medicine (MMed) from Stellenbosch University (2015) and a Master of Philosophy in Emergency Medicine (MPhil) from the University of Cape Town (2022) and is currently enrolled for his PhD in Emergency Medicine at the University of Cape Town.
 
His work focuses on strengthening research capacity within the Division of Emergency Medicine and within the African Federation for Emergency Medicine, where he, as part of an international team, established a research curriculum, a research course, and a mentorship network. He has served as Associate Editor for The African Journal of Emergency Medicine since 2015 and is a reviewer for various international journals. His research interests focus on access to acute care and efficiency within emergency centres, including triage, patient throughput and clinician output. His PhD aims to establish an evidence-based scheduling system for emergency centres that takes into consideration local resource limitations. Hendrikse is a member of the ministerially appointed Expert Review Committee of the National Essential Medicine List and Standard Treatment Guidelines Committee for Emergency Care and Trauma for Adult Hospitals and is establishing a guideline development network that promotes health equity by creating locally applicable guidelines that is relevant to our resource setting.

Congratulations Clint, I look forward to working alongside you and sharing your insight into the growth of this Division.