Browsing by Author "Hellenberg, Derek"

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    Building freeways: piloting communication skills in additional languages to health service personnel in Cape Town, South Africa
    (BioMed Central, 2017-06-07) Claassen, Joel; Jama, Zukile; Manga, Nayna; Lewis, Minnie; Hellenberg, Derek
    Background: This study reflects on the development and teaching of communication skills courses in additional national languages to health care staff within two primary health care facilities in Cape Town, South Africa. These courses were aimed at addressing the language disparities that recent research has identified globally between patients and health care staff. Communication skills courses were offered to staff at two Metropolitan District Health Services clinics to strengthen patient access to health care services. This study reflects on the communicative proficiency in the additional languages that were offered to health care staff. Methods: A mixed-method approach was utilised during this case study with quantitative data-gathering through surveys and qualitative analysis of assessment results. The language profiles of the respective communities were assessed through data obtained from the South African National census, while staff language profiles were obtained at the health care centres. Quantitative measuring, by means of a patient survey at the centres, occurred on a randomly chosen day to ascertain the language profile of the patient population. Participating staff performed assessments at different phases of the training courses to determine their skill levels by the end of the course. Results: The performances of the participating staff during the Xhosa and Afrikaans language courses were assessed, and the development of the staff communicative competencies was measured. Health care staff learning the additional languages could develop Basic or Intermediate Xhosa and Afrikaans that enables communication with patients. Conclusions: In multilingual countries such as South Africa, language has been recognised as a health care barrier preventing patients from receiving quality care. Equipping health care staff with communication skills in the additional languages, represents an attempt to bridge a vital barrier in the South African health care system. The study proves that offering communication skills courses in additional languages, begins to equip health care staff to be multilingual, that allows patients to communicate about their illnesses within their mother tongues.
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    The contribution of diabetes mellitus to lower extremity amputations in four public sector hospitals in Cape Town for 2009 and 2010
    (2012) Dunbar, Graeme Leslie; Levitt, Naomi S; Hellenberg, Derek
    Diabetes is the most common non-communicable disease worldwide and contributes to substantial morbidity and mortality. The prevalence of diabetes is increasing and reaching epidemic proportions, with the largest increase being seen in developing countries, including South Africa. Among the many complications of diabetes, lower extremity amputations are common, with a leg being lost to diabetes somewhere in the world every thirty seconds. The vast majority of these amputations is preventable and is a reflection of inadequate care of diabetic patients. Studies done in South Africa have shown that the care of diabetes in the public sector is suboptimal. A study in the private sector in South Africa showed that by ensuring optimal care of diabetic patients, long term glycaemic control and a decrease in complications and hospital admissions can be achieved. Lower extremity amputations can be the result of complications due to poor glycaemic control. There are, however, few studies that have been done in South Africa assessing the contribution that diabetes makes to the performance of lower extremity amputations. This study will attempt to begin to fill in this gap in South African data and the results will be compared to a previous unpublished South African study in the Cape Town Metropole from 1999.
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    Health sciences undergraduate education at University of Cape Town: a story of transformation
    (Health & Medical Publishing Group, 2012) Hartman, Nadia; Kathard, Harsha; Perez, Gonda; Reid, Steve; Irlam, James; Gunston, Geney D; Janse van Rensburg, Vicki; Burch, Vanessa; Duncan, Madeleine; Hellenberg, Derek; Van Rooyen, Ian; Smouse, Mantoa; Sikakane, Cynthia N; Badenhorst, Elmi; Ige, B
    Undergraduate education and training in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Cape Town has become socially responsive. A story of transformation that is consonant with wider societal developments since the 1994 democratic elections, outlining the changes in undergraduate curricula across the faculty, is presented.
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    Impact of basic transthoracic echocardiography at district hospital level
    (2015) Bedeker, Wiaan Francois; Cupido, Cinda; Hellenberg, Derek
    The use and demand of echocardiography has increased worldwide. In developed countries, this has not been translated into improved access outside tertiary centres. Previous studies have favoured the appropriate use of echocardiography over its clinical impact, limiting generalisability to resource constrained settings. Objectives: To assess the impact of an echocardiographic service at district hospital level in Cape Town, South Africa. Methods: A prospective, cross-sectional study was performed. A total of 210consecutive patients, referred to the echocardiography clinic over a five-month period, were recruited. Transthoracic echocardiography was evaluated by its indication, new information provided, correlation with referring doctor's diagnosis and subsequent management plan. Impact included the escalation and de-escalation in treatment, as well as usefulness without a change in management. Results: The results show that 84% of the patients' management was impacted by echocardiography. Valvular lesions were the main indication. The most frequent contribution was information provided towards the diagnosis of heart failure and assessment post-myocardial infarction. Fifty-six per cent of the echocardiograms confirming the referring doctor's diagnosis still had a significant impact. The rational prescription of medication had the major impetus, followed by de-escalation of therapy and screening patients for referral to tertiary facilities. Conclusion: Echocardiography has a positive impact on patient management outside tertiary settings, where the definition of impact appears to be different. The value of a normal study, screening prior to upstream referral and usefulness irrespective of change has been established. This should alert policy makers towards the risk of restricted access and promote training.
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    Incidence and Prevalence Of Renal Dysfunction In Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) Naïve Patients Starting A Tenofovir (TDF) Based ART Regimen In Mitchell's Plain Community Health Centre (CHC) ARV Clinic
    (2021) Fayanju, Olanrewaju Philips; Hellenberg, Derek; Ras, Tasleem
    Background: Tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) has high antiretrovirus (ARV) activity and available in fixed dose combination (FDC). However, it has been found to cause renal dysfunction. Objectives: To document the prevalence, incidence, pattern of occurence and associated factors of nephrotoxicity in patients initiated on TDF based ART regimen in Mitchell's Plain CHC ARV Clinic and make recommendations. Methodology: The study was conducted by reviewing retrospective records of all ARV naïve HIV positive adults initiated on TDF based ARV regimen from January 2016 to June 2016. The creatinine clearance (CrCl) was calculated from follow up parameters till June 2018. Results: 87 patients were included in the study and 56% were female. The mean age was 34 years. Majority, 83%, had normal renal function at ART initiation. Older age [OR = 1.11; 95% CI (1.03–1.19), p =0.005], was associated with an increased probability of non-normal renal function at baseline. The incidence of CrCl < 90ml/min were 1.5% at 1 month post ARV initiation, 3.3% at 4 months, 6.1% at 12 months and 2.8% at 24 months while the prevalence were 10.5%,11.5%, 20.4% and 16.7% respectively. Older age and male gender were independently associated with prevalence of renal impairment. Conclusion: Renal dysfunction in patients initiated on TDF based regimen in this study varied and were relatively small when compared to the prevalence of renal dysfunction at initiation. Majority of the decline in CrCl were transient and patients were found to have recovered after further follow up. It is recommended that the frequency of renal function monitoring in patients on TDF regimen be done within programmatic guidelines based on patients' risk factors and potential poor outcomes.
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    Profile and anticoagulation outcomes of patients on warfarin therapy in an urban hospital in Cape Town: a review of records of patients attending Victoria Hospital, Cape Town, South Africa
    (2016) Sonuga, Babatunde; Hellenberg, Derek; Cupido, Clint
    Background: Warfarin is the most frequently used oral anticoagulant worldwide and it is the oral anticoagulant of choice in South Africa for reducing thrombosis - related morbidity and mortality. However, the safety and efficacy of warfarin therapy depends mainly on careful monitoring and maintenance of the international normalized ratio (INR) within an optimal therapeutic range. In the ACTIVE - W trial conducted across nine countries, South Africa had the poorest anticoagulation control with warfarin. This study showed that 86% of patients on warfarin therapy in the country have their mean time in therapeutic range below target. This was an indication of a very poor warfarin control in South Africa .The trial reported centre - specific differences within each country. It was however silent on these differences in South Africa. Aim: The aim of this study was to describe the profiles and the anticoagulation outcomes of patients on warfarin therapy in a major warfarin clinic in Western Cape Province of South Africa. Setting: Victoria Hospital - a district hospital in Cape Town, South Africa, which serves around one million people. Methods: A cross sectional review of clinical records of patients on warfarin therapy who attended the INR clinic from 01 January 2014 to 30 June 2014 was done. Data analysis was done with Stata to generate appropriate descriptive data and groups were compared using non - parametric tests. Results: Age range for male patients was between 29 - 85 years with median age of 62 years, while that of female patients was between 17 - 92 years with a median age of 66 years. Atrial fibrillation (AF) was the commonest indication for warfarin use in this study and hypertension was the commonest co-morbidity amongst these patients. Only 48.5% (66 patients) achieved target therapeutic range as of 01 July 2014, while 51.5% (70/136) of the patients were out of range. Patients who were non - alcohol users (88.9%) had better therapeutic control than those who consumed alcohol (9.6%). There was a significant association between alcohol consumption and poor anticoagulation outcomes (p value <0.022). Unlike alcohol use, there was no statistical relationship between smoking habit and target therapeutic range (P value = 0.198). The study also showed that anticoagulation outcomes were better among the older age groups, male patients and in those with atrial fibrillation. The prevalence of thrombotic events while on warfarin treatment was 2.2%, while prevalence of haemorrhagic events was 14%. Most of the patients with bleeding events were on concurrent use of warfarin and other medications with potential drug interactions. Conclusion: In this study, patients who achieved target therapeutic control were less than the acceptable 60%. Bleeding complications were more common among patients on concurrent use of warfarin with other medications such as NSAIDS and simvastatin. Therefore, it is of utmost importance for health professionals to take note of drug - drug or drug - disease interactions among patients on warfarin and to monitor INR levels more frequently in patients who have to unavoidably be on concurrent use of medications with possible major interactions with warfarin. Keywords: Oral anticoagulant, anticoagulation outcomes, therapeutic control, percentage INR within target therapeutic range (%ITTR).
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    Urban African traditional healers : their understanding of and beliefs about biomedical diseases
    (2006) Mazaza, Shadrick; Hellenberg, Derek
    African traditional healers are themselves "patients" in the modern bio-psycho-social health system. Their "frameworks of meaning" of biomedical diseases provides a glimpse of the "voice of the lifeworld" of the patients who interact both with them and the modern allopathic health services. The main objective of this study was to ascertain African traditional healers' understanding of and beliefs about the medical conditions under discussion in the doctor-patient interaction to which they silently listen.