South African medical journal = Suid-Afrikaanse tydskrif vir geneeskunde
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The recent amendment to the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) Form 57 MED allows specialist registration on publication of the compulsory MMed research assignment in an accredited journal. No data exist on the conversion rate of MMed dissertations to publication. ⋯ Conversion of the South African MMed dissertation into a journal-accredited scientific article was achieved in 60.3% of publication-ready-format submissions, suggesting that the HPCSA amendment facilitating specialist registration is attainable. Retrospective reviews of dissertations provide valuable insights to improve understanding of the contentious issue of the registrar research requirement that permits specialist registration.
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South Africa (SA) and other countries worldwide are experiencing extreme drought conditions. Since the start of the drought in SA, many ways of saving water have been proposed and innovative water-saving mechanisms have become part of the lives of communities. We investigated water use during surgical scrubbing procedures and possible interventions to reduce water consumption. ⋯ Water use during surgical hand preparation can easily be reduced by implementing easy and effective interventions. The practicality of interventions may differ between institutions, and their acceptance by surgical staff is important to ensure compliance. However, ensuring that alternative scrubbing options are available to surgical staff would equate to substantial savings over time.
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Patients diagnosed with spinal tuberculosis (TB) at a major tertiary hospital in Western Cape Province, South Africa, are required to attend regular follow-up at the hospital's outpatient spine clinic and to remain on TB treatment for at least 9 months. This follow-up and lengthy treatment is intended to allow for specialist monitoring of TB treatment response and early identification of secondary complications, and to reduce the risk of recurrence. However, little is known about adherence to these recommendations. ⋯ Three-quarters of the patients did not complete follow-up at the tertiary hospital spine clinic, and almost one in three received <9 months of TB treatment. Remaining in spine clinic follow-up was significantly associated with receiving at least the minimum duration of TB treatment. However, LTFU could not be predicted from routine clinical and demographic information and is likely to be related to factors not accounted for in the current analysis.
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Letter by Ntsie on the responses of Van Niekerk (Van Niekerk A. Child health, infant formula funding and South African health professionals: Eliminating conflict of interest. S Afr Med J 2020;110(4):262-264. https://doi.org/10.7196/SAMJ.2020.v110i4.14611) and Khan (Khan N. ⋯ S Afr Med J 2020;110(4):262-264. https://doi.org/10.7196/SAMJ.2020.v110i4.14611) to the article by Lake et al. (Lake L, Kroon M, Sanders D, et al. Child health, infant formula funding and South African health professionals: Eliminating conflict of interest. S Afr Med J 2019;109(12):902-906. https://doi.org/10.7196/SAMJ.2019.v109i12.14336).