Name: Professor Karen Sliwa
Institution: Director of the Hatter Institute for Cardiovascular Research in Africa, University of Cape Town, South Africa
Connection to the Academy: International Health Lecturer 2016
Can you tell us a little about yourself?
I was born in Germany, spent time studying and working all over the world before moving to my current home in South Africa. My main interests are cardiac diseases occurring in pregnancy as peripartum cardiomyopathy (PPCM), the epidemiology of cardiovascular disease (CVD), and particularly the causes of heart failure in Africa. With Professor Simon Stewart, Australia, I initiated the Heart of Soweto studies, the results led to over twenty publications describing e.g. the prevalence of Rheumatic Heart Disease in adults and the impact of HIV/AIDS on CVD, making me a world-recognized expert in cardiac conditions common in Africa. I expanded my research under the umbrella of the Heart of Africa studies which requires a lot of travel, and I currently have strong collaborations with colleagues Mozambique, Cameroon, Nigeria, Tanzania, Kenya amongst others.
I love Africa, I think the rich culture due to ethnic diversity is enriching and fascinating, so the travelling is one of the best parts of what I do.
Are there any key messages that you hope the audience will take away from your lecture?
Professor Karen Sliwa presented the Academy of Medical Sciences & The Lancet International Health Lecture on 25 October 2016. For more information please visit this page.
Yes! There are three messages that I’d like them to take away. One is that in Africa, there has been a definite change in the healthcare landscape. Africa is often associated with communicable diseases, but now, the big threats are definitely non-communicable disease – obesity, hypertension, diabetes and heart disease. However, rheumatic heart disease and the cardiomyopathies remain common.
I also think there needs to be a change in how we approach healthcare in Africa. As there are very low numbers of healthcare professionals per capita – Africa needs its own solutions. We have started to be more innovative with our approaches of training health care professionals using e-learning and other technology tools. However, we mainly need to educate the public, who often had poor schooling and prevent future problems.
Finally, I’d like to highlight the issue of healthcare during pregnancy – while obstetrics are getting better overall, maternal deaths are a huge problem in Africa, particularly for women in the post partum period. It’s a real challenge, and I think it’s important that we address it – you can read more about it in a Lancet article from earlier in 2016.
The Academy is currently looking into the profile and impact of multiple morbidity in low and medium resource settings. Can you tell us anything about your experiences of this, working in Africa?
Of course, I’m a cardiologist, and I see a lot of this – hypertensive heart disease and heart failure due to a number of conditions are huge problems, and often accompanied by diabetes, kidney disease, similar to many other countries around the world. In addition in South Africa many patients are co-infected with HIV/AIDS making the management even more complex.
I also think depression is a problem – many people with heart failure in Africa are young, and they can feel ignored or isolated through their illness, most are experiencing a loss of income, life can be very difficult for them. I see them being treated for their cardiac problems, but I think we should be doing more for their mental health alongside this.
Have there been any major role models or mentors in your career, and do you find yourself mentoring others?
Absolutely! Early in my career, I spent a year at Hadassah University, Jerusalem, with Professor Sidney Klaus. He encouraged me to really think and be confident, and to ask questions. He told me to find my niche, and specialise – of course, over the years, my research interests have widened, but I started by finding an area that really interested me, and learning everything I could about it. It’s opened so many doors for me, it’s been fantastic.
I think I’ve taken his approach – I’ve had sixteen PhD students so far, and they’ve all become senior researchers or professors. I’m still in touch with almost all of them, I’m their PhD mum – they never get away! But I’ve always taught all my PhD students that they must find their own niche, and get out of my shadow as quickly as possible.
I think it’s a real shock for them in their first year, I’m not sure they always enjoy it to begin with, but they quickly realise the advantage they have – I’ve pushed them to present, to publish, to find what they enjoy from day one, and now they’ve already started to make a name for themselves in an area that interests them, when others are just getting started. In the prestigious World Heart Federation emergent leader programme, four belong to my past African PhD students. I tell them, they’ll like me for the first three months, hate me for the next six, and then like me hopefully forever more.