Part of the Paediatric Cardiology service of the Western Cape

Unit profile | Clinical Activities | Teaching and Training | Division Highlights | Research | Publications

Staff

                                                                           Consultants
A/Prof Rik De Decker (UCT)
rik.dedecker@uct.ac.za		 Dr George Comitis (UCT)
george.comitis@uct.ac.za		 Dr Barend Fourie
(Stellenbosch University)
bfourie@sun.ac.za
                                                                        Part-time Consultants
 
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Dr Lenise Swanson Prof Liesl Zühlke
                                                                         Honorary Consultants
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Dr Christopher Hugo-Hamman Dr Harold Pribut Dr Adele Greyling
                                                                         Senior Registrars
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Dr Christiana Adu-Takyi Dr Nazneen Allie   Dr Zinzile Ngwenyama

Sessional Medical Officers
Dr Wendy Matthiassen
                       Cardiac Liaison Nursing Sister                                 Cardiology Clerk
Sr Charnette Elliot Ms Eloise Hendricks
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 Contact Numbers

Ward: E1 E-Floor, Red Cross Children's Hospital (021) 658-5125
OPD:  S27, Red Cross Children's Hospital (021) 658-5002
Cath Lab: Theatre Complex, C Floor, Red Cross Children's Hospital (021) 658-5227
Echo Room: B6, B-Floor, Red Cross Children's Hospital (021) 658-5588
Cardiology Departmental office and Seminar Room B3, B-Floor, Red Cross Children's Hospital (021) 658-5251

Associated Clinics

Grown-up Congenital  Heart Disease (GUCH) Clinic, E17, Groote Schuur Hospital
Combined Cardio Obstetrics Clinic (CCOC), Maternity Block, Groote Schuur Hospital

Unit Profile

The Paediatric Cardiology Service of the Western Cape is the largest public service unit looking after people with heart disease from birth up until adulthood.  We are a cross-platform unit that serves patients at both Red Cross Children’s Hospital and Tygerberg Hospital with consultative services and in-patient care available at both sites.  In addition, we also see newborn patients suspected of having heart disease in the neonatal services at Groote Schuur, Tygerberg and Mowbray Maternity Hospitals.

We work closely with our colleagues in the foetal medicine units as well as in the adult cardiology services of Tygerberg and Groote Schuur Hospitals. We help our surgical and critical care colleagues care for the patients who have undergone cardiac surgery at Red Cross Children's Hospital.  Our referral base includes the Western Cape and half of the Eastern Cape Province. In addition, outreach clinics are also run in East London and George Hospital twice a year, in Paarl three times a year and in Worcester four times a year.

 Clinical Activities

  1. Inpatient care and consultation
  2. Echocardiography
  3. Paediatric cardiac catheterisation
  4. Paediatric cardiac surgery
  5. Outpatient clinics
  6. After hours consultation
  7. Surgical meetings
  8. CATHCHAT (internet broadcast facility for cardiac catheterisations)

Timetable:

  Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
7:30-8:30am ICU ward rounds followed by E1 ward rounds
am Cardiac OPD
clinic at TBH		 Cardiac OPD clinic Cardiac Cath Day


Foetal echoes		 Discharges and pre-clinic echoes *GUCH clinic
#CCOC clinic
pm Cardiac OPD
clinic		 Cath intake Cardiac OPD
clinic		 Cardiac surgical
meeting
4:00pm ICU ward rounds followed by E1 ward rounds
* Grown-up Congenital Heart Disease
# Combined Cardiac Obstetric Clinic

Teaching and Training

The unit provides education and training to undergraduates and postgraduate students at both campuses.

Undergraduate:

The unit is involved in providing classroom seminars and clinical bedside teaching to medical students in their fourth (Stellenbosch University), fifth and sixth years (Stellenbosch University and University of Cape Town) of study. Staff members contribute to weekly bedside teaching of fifth year medical students and seminars every 8 weeks to the whole group of students assigned to Paediatrics.  Ward rounds are used to educate fifth and sixth year students. We encourage elective students from South Africa and overseas.

Postgraduate:

Postgraduate training programmes currently offered by our unit include;

  1. A one year full-time or two year part-time postgraduate diploma in clinical paediatric cardiology open to all doctors with an MBChB degree and available through UCT.

  2. A three-year MPhil degree for subspecialisation in paediatric cardiology available to qualified and registered paediatricians and culminating in a Certificate in Paediatric Cardiology exit examination. Certification is obtained through the College of Medicine of South Africa (CMSA) and senior registrars are taught at UCT while in the service of the Department of Health.
    A minor dissertation is undertaken upon completion of subspecialist training and leads to the awarding of the MPhil.

We also provide supervision and mentorship to a number of postgraduate students undertaking Masters or PhD projects.

Fellowships:

The paediatric cardiology unit provides a platform for training paediatricians from other African countries as part of the African Paediatric Fellowship Programme (APFP). The APFP was established in 2007 in the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health at the University of Cape Town.

APFP trainees spend between one to three years training in the paediatric cardiology unit with a focus on clinical and echocardiography skills. This allows them to return to their home countries as generalists with special skills in paediatric cardiology. In the past five years we have hosted trainees from Uganda, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Ghana, Kenya and Namibia.

Visiting Scholars/Students:

Our unit plays host to numerous visiting scholars from around the world looking to create collaborative relationships and conduct research. To date we have had scholars visit us from Germany, Australia, the United Kingdom and America amongst others.

Division Highlights

Members of the division are involved in a wide range of clinical and research activities.

Head of Department: Professor John Lawrenson

  • Clinical Interests: Echocardiography and Rheumatic Heart Disease.

  • Research: Professor Lawrenson is the lead investigator of the IMHOTEP (The African Cardiomyopathy and Myocarditis Registry Programme), INVICTUS (Investigation of Rheumatic AF Treatment Using Vitamin K Antagonists, Rivaroxaban or Aspirin Studies) and PROTEA (A North-South Partnership in Congenital Heart Disease) studies at the Tygerberg Hospital site.

Director of the Cath Lab and CATHCHAT: A/Professor Rik Decker

  • Clinical Interests: Interventional Cardiac Catheterisation, Risky Business.

  • Research:  A/Professor De Decker leads the CATHCHAT programme at Red Cross Children’s Hospital. CATHCHAT is a novel live online teaching and learning platform for interventional paediatric cardiac catheterisation aimed at stimulating interest in interventional cardiac catheterisation and developing capacity in Africa.

Director of the Children’s Heart Disease Research Unit: Professor Liesl Zühlke

  • Clinical Interests: Rheumatic Heart Disease, Global Health, Adolescent Transitional Care, Grown-Up Congenital Heart Disease, Combined Cardio-Obstetrics and Quality Improvement.

  • Research and Interests: Professor Zühlke directs the Children’s Heart Disease Research Unit.  Her work is largely driven by an ethos of integrating research and clinical practice in order to improve the lives of those with congenital and paediatric heart disease through conducting innovative, patient-centred and accountable research with a focus on African areas of need.

Director of the Echo Lab: Dr George Comitis

  • Clinical Interests:  Cardiopulmonary Exercise Testing, Echocardiography and Multi-Modality Imaging.

  • Research: Dr Comitis is the co-lead investigator of the IMHOTEP study at the Red Cross Hospital site as well as an investigator on the PROTEA and Panorama-Heart Failure (LCZ) studies.

Full-time consultant at Tygerberg Hospital: Dr Barend Fourie

  • Clinical Interests: Cardiac Catheterisation and Multi-Modality Imaging.

  • Research: Dr Fourie is the co-lead investigator of the IMHOTEP, INVICTUS and PROTEA studies at the Tygerberg Hospital site.

Research

Our unit is involved with the ASAP Rheumatic Fever and Rheumatic Heart Disease programme. In addition we are also involved in setting international standards for echocardiographic surveillance in screening studies of populations at risk for rheumatic heart disease. We are a participating centre for the IMHOTEP cardiomyopathy/myocarditis registry and have an ongoing interest in the genetics of congenital heart disease.

We are also strongly affiliated with the Children’s Heart Disease Research Unit (CHDRU) which was established as a key element within the department in May 2015. The CHDRU is based at Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital under the auspices of the University of Cape Town and has firm ties with the Departments of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Adult Cardiology and Medicine. The specific aims of the CHDRU are to facilitate current research activities in congenital and paediatric heart disease whilst building capacity to support such research. Current and ongoing projects include the flagship PROTEA study, the Adole 7C ((Adolescents receiving Continuous Care for Childhood-onset Chronic Conditions) study, IQIC (International Quality Improvement Collaborative for Congenital Heart Surgery), LCZ, INVICTUS and IMHOTEP among others.  pido B, Zühlke L, Osman A, van Dyk D, Sliwa K. Managing Rheumatic Heart Disease in Pregnancy: A Practical Evidence Based Multidisciplinary Ap.

Publications

There have been numerous articles published in association with and by members of the paediatric cardiology unit in recent years.  Some of the more recent publications are listed below and a full list of publications can be downloaded here. 

  • Vogel B, Acevedo M, Appelman Y, Merz CNB, Chieffo A, Figtree GA, Guerrero M, Kunadian V, Lam CSP, Maas AHEM, Mihailidou AS, Olszanecka A, Poole JE, Saldarriaga C, Saw J, Zühlke L and Mehran R. The Lancet women and cardiovascular disease Commission: reducing the global burden by 2030. The Lancet. 2021.
     
  • Coates MM, Sliwa K, Watkins DA, Zühlke L, Perel P, Berteletti F, Eiselé J-L, Klassen SL, Kwan GF, Mocumbi AO, Prabhakaran D, Habtemariam MK and Bukhman G. An investment case for the prevention and management of rheumatic heart disease in the African Union 2021-2030: a modelling study. The Lancet Global Health. 2021.
     
  • McMahon C, Redington A, Tretter J, Bulock F, Zühlke L, Heying R, Mattos S, Kumar K, Windram J, Jacobs JP. Medical Education and Training within Congenital Cardiology: Current Global Status and Future Directions in a Post COVID-19 World. Cardiology in the Young. 2021: 1-40.
     
  • Kraus SM, Shaboodien G, Francis V, Laing N, Cirota J, Chin A, Pandie S, Lawrenson J, Comitis GAM, Fourie B, Zühlke L, Wonkam A, Wainwright H, Damasceno A, Mocumbi AO, Pepeta L, Moeketsi K, Thomas BM, Thomas K, Makotoko M, Brown S, Ntsekhe M, Sliwa K, Badri M, Gumedze F, Cordell HJ, Keavney B, Ferreira V, Mahmod M, Cooper LT, Yacoub M, Neubauer S, Watkins H, Mayosi BM, and Ntusi NAB, for the IMHOTEP investigators. Rationale and design of the African Cardiomyopathy and Myocarditis Registry Program: The IMHOTEP study. International Journal of Cardiology. 2021; 333: 119-126.
     
  • Abdullahi L, Albertus C, Perkins S, Ralston K, White A, Mwangi J, and Zühlke LJ. The RHD Action Small Grants Programme: Small Investment, Big Return!. Global Heart. 2021; 16(1): 28.
     
  • Vivian LMH, Hunter C, Tan L, Comitis G, Neveling G, Lawrenson J. Found in translation: navigating uncertainty to save a child's heart. Paediatric cardiac surgery in Cape Town, South Africa. Med Humanit. 2021 Mar;47(1):112-122.
     
  • Moons P, Skogby S, Bratt E-L, Zühlke L, Marelli A, and Goossens E. Discontinuity of cardiac follow-up in young people with congenital heart disease transitioning to adulthood: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of the American Heart Association. 2021; 10: e019552.
     
  • Scheel A, Mirabel M, Nunes MCP, Okello E, Sarnacki R, Steer AC, Engelman D, Zimmerman M, Zühlke L, Sable C, Beaton A. The inter-rater reliability and individual reviewer performance of the 2012 world heart federation guidelines for the echocardiographic diagnosis of latent rheumatic heart disease. International Journal of Cardiology. 2021; 328: 146-151.

We strive to work with parents and families to provide family-centred, community appropriate care and treatment.
Please contact us for any further information on our department and the work that we do.