Chris Bateman
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View article: Wikipedia Knows Nothing
Wikipedia Knows Nothing Open
What does the Wikipedia know, and how can it know it? More to the point, how can anyone using an anonymously edited source, the contents of which change on a daily basis, know that what they are reading constitutes knowledge? In this provo…
View article: LB-002 Liquid biopsy identifies somatic KRAS mutations in paediatric cranio-spinal arterio-venous malformations: preliminary results
LB-002 Liquid biopsy identifies somatic KRAS mutations in paediatric cranio-spinal arterio-venous malformations: preliminary results Open
Introduction Vascular malformations frequently contain somatic mutations of vascular endothelium. Brain arterio-venous malformations (AVMs) have been shown via surgically resected tissues to contain somatic activating mutations in the KRAS…
View article: Game Design Lineages: Minecraft’s Inventory
Game Design Lineages: Minecraft’s Inventory Open
Game design is conditioned by the practice, both formal and inormal, of drawing from previous designs as a source of knowledge and inspiration. Innovation in game design is thus often the result of old ideas recombined in novel ways. We pr…
View article: Green My Place: Evaluation of a Serious Social Online Game Designed to Promote Energy Efficient Behaviour Change
Green My Place: Evaluation of a Serious Social Online Game Designed to Promote Energy Efficient Behaviour Change Open
The pressing problems of climate change and energy insecurity can both, to a degree, be addressed by improving efficiency and conservation of energy use. A key driver of energy conservation is the consumer market, illustrating the importan…
View article: No-one Plays Alone
No-one Plays Alone Open
The discourses around games have tended to focus upon either their artefactual qualities or the phenomenological experience of play. In both cases, games are primarily to be understood singularly. An alternative approach, related to Foucau…
View article: New findings say ‘never take a TB cure for granted’
New findings say ‘never take a TB cure for granted’ Open
Stellenbosch University (SU) research findings published online in Nature Medicine in September show that that 86% of HIV-negative 'cured' tuberculosis (TB) patients examined still had actively inflamed lung lesions, while a third of them …
View article: A fond and grateful farewell
A fond and grateful farewell Open
After 16 years of discovery, excitement, and getting to know some of the best scientific and medical hearts and minds in this country (in many cases, the world), I am leaving Izindaba to take up a freelance career in the healthcare field.
View article: Counting the public healthcare litigation bill
Counting the public healthcare litigation bill Open
IZINDABAIn addition to the cost in grief and trauma to families and the shattered confidence of under-resourced, under-supervised and over-worked doctors, South Africa (SA)'s nine provincial health departments face a ZAR24 billion patient …
View article: An uphill battle – getting rehab into mainstream rural medicine
An uphill battle – getting rehab into mainstream rural medicine Open
Rehabilitation healthcare professionals starting out in a rural hospital need to socialise with and educate clinicians, develop community networks and support groups and build referral systems, if they want to be effective and get to grips…
View article: Election politics ride roughshod over clinicians, patients
Election politics ride roughshod over clinicians, patients Open
Strange things happen at election time. Patient care and doctor support can come a very poor second to tub-thumping and vote-collecting – that’s if the stories of two hospital CEOs with impeccable and impressive track records, highly respe…
View article: Living their passion for upliftment – RuDASA award winners
Living their passion for upliftment – RuDASA award winners Open
From celebrating the work of a rare rural audiologist to lauding the selfless lifetime achievements of a veteran community change-agent, the Rural Doctors’ Association of South Africa (RuDASA) awards at its 20th annual conference in Graham…
View article: Two fatalities in Durban’s multiple hospital strikes
Two fatalities in Durban’s multiple hospital strikes Open
Two strikers, believed to be cleaners, died in a confrontation with security guards at King Edward Hospital on 14 July, following the non-implementation of a legal amendment rendering certain non-time-based temporary hospital staff permane…
View article: 'Shamed' Durban doctor claims ZAR20 million
'Shamed' Durban doctor claims ZAR20 million Open
A Durban doctor, summarily marched out his hospital in full view of patients and colleagues and later suspended, with his provincial health MEC pillorying him on a departmental website for allegedly refusing to treat a car-crash victim, th…
View article: Cutting-edge ZAR120 million boost for SA’s surgical skills
Cutting-edge ZAR120 million boost for SA’s surgical skills Open
A ZAR120 million state-of-the-art surgical skills simulation laboratory opened on the Tygerberg campus of Stellenbosch University this July, replicating real-time theatre scenarios and turbo-boosting healthcare for the entire sub-Saharan r…
View article: Give us peer-educators, not nurses, say sex workers
Give us peer-educators, not nurses, say sex workers Open
Using peer educators to enrol sex workers into healthcare programmes is far superior to persuasion via traditional healthcare workers, who are seen as prejudiced and lacking understanding, Médecins Sans Frontières research presented to a s…
View article: HIV treatment under control – now for sexy prevention?
HIV treatment under control – now for sexy prevention? Open
The South African government launched a ZAR2 billion HIV prevention and young women empowerment programme, the biggest this country has ever seen, at the Pietermaritzburg Showgrounds on 24 June – and healthcare workers may soon start selli…
View article: Rape survivor care crisis - mines the worst?
Rape survivor care crisis - mines the worst? Open
The dire need for better healthcare worker training in rape forensics and safe survivor care has never been better illustrated than by the horrifying rape statistics Medicins Sans Frontieres presented last month from the platinum-mining bo…
View article: EMS workers struggle in violent election climate
EMS workers struggle in violent election climate Open
Two of South Africa’s leading emergency medical service chiefs and government advisors last month backed the Gauteng Department of Health’s call to protesting communities to allow emergency rescuers into volatile environments to save lives…
View article: Médecins Sans Frontières moves to protect refugee healthcare
Médecins Sans Frontières moves to protect refugee healthcare Open
As Médecins Sans Frontières spurned all European Union (EU) funding for its projects world wide after a series of cynical EU-country moves to choke inward refugee flow, South African activists in Johannesburg this June protested the propos…
View article: Restoring hope for terminal cancer patients – a 'St Jude' legacy
Restoring hope for terminal cancer patients – a 'St Jude' legacy Open
Were it not for 80-year-old Prof. Ernette du Toit’s unceasing efforts to get South Africa and its donors on the global stem cell registry map, more than 100 of her compatriots would not be alive and fulfilling their dreams and ambitions to…
View article: Zika – a wake-up call for continuous fetal monitoring
Zika – a wake-up call for continuous fetal monitoring Open
A medical ethicist from the University of KwaZulu Natal, (UKZN), Professor Sylvester Chima, warned maternal health workers attending the Africa Health Exhibition/Congress in Gauteng this June to be especially vigilant in monitoring for fet…
View article: HPV: Hope in 15 years for unvaccinated women
HPV: Hope in 15 years for unvaccinated women Open
The deadly cervical cancer-causing human papillomavirus could be eliminated in South Africa within 15 years if ground-breaking new ‘test-and-treat’ technology for women can be successfully introduced to supplement nationwide vaccination of…
View article: Alarming rate of COPD in SA
Alarming rate of COPD in SA Open
Urgent research is needed to understand the massive potential burden of non-tobacco-related chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in Cape Town and South Africa, both of which have among the world’s worst COPD burdens, Prof. Richard …
View article: Chris Bateman wins award
Chris Bateman wins award Open
Chris Bateman wins Commentary and Analysis category in 2016 Discovery Health Journalism awards.
View article: Occupational injuries – radiologists lose patience, sue government
Occupational injuries – radiologists lose patience, sue government Open
In spite of a new electronic claims system and ZAR52 billion in its coffers, the Compensation Fund keeps doctors waiting for payments for up to a year – prompting 19 radiologists to sue it for ZAR121.5 million in unpaid claims this March, …
View article: Newer drugs keep multiple sclerosis patients out of wheelchairs – expert
Newer drugs keep multiple sclerosis patients out of wheelchairs – expert Open
There are fewer multiple sclerosis patients in wheelchairs than ever before in South Africa, mainly due to the advent of interferon drugs over the last decade with better second line drugs over the past three years, says Prof. Girish Modi,…
View article: Quality of care responsible for soaring maternal deaths – report
Quality of care responsible for soaring maternal deaths – report Open
The National Department of Health is moving across provinces to centralise obstetric skills to a handful of district hospitals, urgently briefing district healthcare chiefs and ensuring they have sufficient blood supplies in a bid to furth…
View article: Health department selectively using NGO input - claim
Health department selectively using NGO input - claim Open
Willing healthcare worker feedback to the unique Stop-Stock-Outs Coalition stands to improve the quality and length of patients’ lives – but for thousands, corrective action will take too long if government continues to ignore civil societ…
View article: Drunk driving: Bring back the breathalyser – experts
Drunk driving: Bring back the breathalyser – experts Open
Although mortuaries and trauma units around the country dealt with fewer dead and injured motorists this Easter (46% fewer fatalities than last year), a leading trauma surgeon and a high-profile forensic pathologist emerged to call for a r…