The University of Cape Town invites you to an inaugural lecture by Professor Maritz Laubscher.

Stronger together - Research as a clinician is a team sport

Research as a full-time clinician comes with unique challenges. Limited time, competing priorities and limited research training are just a few of the many challenges clinicians face when trying to conduct research. Initial enthusiasm is often quickly extinguished by the administrative burden, lack of support and funding constraints leading to research fatigue and burnout.

"As a full-time clinician my first passion has always been clinical work. Ironically, clinicians are often best positioned to identify the most relevant research questions because they encounter unmet needs and evidence gaps daily. However, the very clinical workload that generates these questions often limits the time and resources available to investigate them.
For many successful clinician-scientists, the key factors enabling research productivity are protected research time, strong mentorship, collaborative teams, institutional support, and integration of research into routine clinical practice rather than treating it as an additional task. Many of these aspects lack in our employment models."

Drawing from his passion for team sport (and specifically rugby), Professor Maritz Laubscher will explore how building a team has helped the Division of Orthopaedics surgery to set up a research unit, increase their research output and improve the quality of their projects.

Maritz set up a dedicated Bone and Joint Infection Unit at Groote Schuur Hospital and helped establish the African Bone and Joint Network (ABJIN). He is also part of the Orthopaedic Research Unit (ORU) and the Global Injury Group (GIG).

About our speaker: 

Maritz Laubscher is a specialist orthopaedic surgeon with fellowship training in Limb Reconstruction.

Maritz obtained his undergraduate qualification from the University of the Free State. After working at various centres around South Africa and the United Kingdom, he completed his specialist orthopaedic training at the University of Cape Town. This was followed by a fellowship in orthopaedic trauma at Groote Schuur Hospital and the Cape Orthopaedic Trauma Group at Vincent Pallotti Hospital. He then travelled to London to work in the Limb Reconstruction Unit at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital. During his time there he gained extensive experience in all aspects of limb reconstruction in adult and paediatric patients, including deformity correction, limb lengthening and the treatment of non-unions and bone infections. He returned to Cape Town to take up a consultant position at the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Groote Schuur Hospital, University of Cape Town (UCT). He also joined the team at the Cape Orthopaedic Trauma Group. He assisted setting up dedicated Bone and Joint Infection Units at both Groote Schuur Hospital and Vincent Polotti Hospitals for the management of bone and joint infections by a multidisciplinary team.

Maritz received several awards during his orthopaedic career. In 2013 he was awarded the Edelstein medal for being the top candidate in the country in the orthopaedic specialist exams. He was also awarded the Smith&Nephew Travelling fellowship. He was promoted to associate professor in orthopaedic surgery in 2020 and full professor in 2025 at UCT. In 2023 he was awarded the American-British-Canadian (ABC) travelling fellowship to the USA and Canada for 2024.

Maritz presented at many local and international meetings and his research work has been published in local and international journals (see https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Maritz_Laubscher/research). He published more than 120 articles in peer-reviewed journals, and his work has more than 2000 citations (h-index 19). His research interests include clinical research in orthopaedic trauma, bone and joint infections and global musculoskeletal injury care. He is involved in both postgraduate and undergraduate teaching at the University of Cape Town and supervised several postgraduate degrees. 

Maritz is the current president of the South African Orthopaedic Trauma Society and the incoming president of the College of Orthopaedic Surgeons of South Africa. He is passionate about improving both orthopaedic trauma care standards and access across South Africa and Africa.

Special Interests:

•    Limb reconstruction in adult and paediatric patients (including limb lengthening, deformity correction and non-union management)
•    Bone and Joint Infections
•    Complex orthopaedic trauma