Staff | Contact | Unit profile | Teaching and training | Neurodevelopment Unit Timetable | Research | Publications | Resources

Staff 

Consultants:	Dr M Richards  mark.richards@uct.ac.za
	Dr V Ramanjam
	Dr S Moodley
Lecturers/Consultants Part-time:	Dr S Warner
Senior Registrar	Dr Caroline Nerima
	Dr Anatasia Omoding
	Dr Hendrike McDonald
Nursing support:	Sr Andiswa Vanto
	Sr Patricia Louw
Clerk:	Ibtishaam Daniels

Contact

Unit profile

• Red Cross Children's Hospital is the largest children's hospital in Sub-Saharan Africa. It provides all levels of multidisciplinary care at an international level whilst taking in to account the limitations of being located in a resource poor country.
• The Division of Developmental paediatrics sees both commo n and rare, complex multisystemic disorders (Autism, genetic syndromes with associated developmental problems, cerebral palsy etc).
• The vision and mission of the service is directed specifically towards the impact from diseases of poverty, which dominate the service load, i.e.
  • tuberculosis
  • human immunodeficiency virus type 1
  • perinatal injury and disorders of antenatal toxin exposure (FAS, Methamphetamin exposure)
• The child development service is directed towards building and expanding capacity to manage both complex disorders and the neglected diseases of poverty from vulnerable populations.
• Dedicated clinics have established large cohorts of children from the Sub-Saharan African population
  • Cerebral Palsy
  • Autism
  • Neurocutaneous disorders.
• The service operates in the region of 60 clinics a month, with almost 3000 clinic visits a year.
• There are 6 dedicated paediatric beds which are available to the department should children require admission for diagnostic workup or complex management issues, but many more patients are managed on the "general wards" on a referral / advisory basis.
• Outreach service operates with regular specialist visits for both training and case assessment.
• The service assists with establishing government guidelines aimed towards optimal care in a resource poor setting.

Teaching and Training

The team regard training as an essential way to improve care to children with developmental problems - we are keen to set up links with other centres throughout Africa and to offer training experiences either through attachments to our department or through invited training workshops.

• Currently one of two centres in South Africa with a dedicated child development/paediatric neurodevelopment training post.
• The post follows international training guidelines.
• To date 4 trainees fully completed training (now in consultant posts).

Paediatric Neurodevelopment Unit Timetable(Clinical activities, outpatient clinics, meetings and teaching)

Research

Departmental research spans involvement in projects investigation aspects of cerebral palsy, autism spectrum disorders as well as the genetic disorders associated with developmental problems. In particular there is specific interest in developmental disabilities as they manifest in resource limited settings such as South Africa. Specific interests include the preventable causes of neurodisability such as alcohol and methamphetamine exposure, organophosphate poisoning and the neurological and neurocognitive complications of HIV.

Research Projects and Collaborations

• A Multi-Scale Approach to Characterizing Developing Executive Functions ("Khula")
• The Genetic Characterization of Neurodevelopment Disorders ("Neurodev")
• The Genetic Characterization of ADHD in Kenyan and South African Populations ("Akili")
• Neurobiological pathways from trauma exposure to child mental health outcomes in a high adversity South African Birth Cohort
• Socioemotional Prediction in Adverse Contexts with EEG. EEG Predicting Language Outcomes over Regions and Environments (SPACE EXPLORE)
• The Pregnancy Risk and Infant Surveillance & Measurement Alliance (PRISMA)
• Brain and Cognitive Development in the PASS Cohort: The Impact of Prenatal Alcohol Exposure
• Tracking and prediction of early brain-face biomarkers of prenatal alcohol exposure from neonates to children
• Longitudinal Mapping of Brain-face-behavior Trajectories in Prenatal Alcohol Exposure from Birth Through Adolescence
• Genetic Influences of Infant Brain Development: Understanding the Developmental Origins of Mental Illness
• African Leadership for Measuring brain health in children and Adolescents (ALMA)

Publications

Please view an overview of publications
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/myncbi/kirsty.donald.1/bibliography/49565518/public/?sort=date&direction=descending

Resources

	The African Paediatric Fellowship Programme (APFP)	theapfp.org/
	Neuroscience Institute	www.neuroscience.uct.ac.za