At the end of June 2023, Rhodes University academics and directors participated in an international, interdisciplinary seminar themed ‘Leadership for Workplace Health Promotion in Educational Institutions & Community Settings: Post-Tuberculosis (TB) Lung Disease’.
“TB is highly prevalent in India and South Africa, although it is a preventable and curable disease. There is a dearth of international guidelines and recommendations on the follow-up of patients who have been treated for TB. The World Health Organisation’s End TB Strategy is yet to incorporate post-TB respiratory disorders, resulting in a lack of recognition of the continuing impact of Post Tuberculosis Lung Disease in National governments’ TB policies,” explained Prof Sunitha Srinivas, Visiting Professor at Rhodes University.
This important seminar was convened by Professor Seema Rath, Vice Principal, Government College of Arts, Science and Commerce in Goa, through its Postgraduate Department & Research Centre in Economics. Prof Rath was also a Research Associate in the Faculty of Pharmacy at Rhodes University. The idea for the collaboration emerged when Professor Srinivas attended the Rhodes University Internationalisation Awards in May, having earlier attended the 2nd International Post-TB Symposium at STIAS Institute, Stellenbosch, South Africa, in April 2023.
The scene was set with an excellent, well-illustrated clinical presentation, complete with x-rays, delivered passionately by Dr Govind Desai, the Senior Chest Physician and Medical Superintendent of the TB hospital, Margao-Goa, India. This was followed by another very informed presentation by Dr Sandipana Pati, Additional Director from the Department of Health and Family Welfare, Odisha, India.
During the day-long seminar, Professor Srinivas delivered a keynote on the economic and health objectives for south-south cooperation in educational institutions focused on Post TB lung disease. Focusing more on the methods of delivery of TB medications, an informative and insightful presentation regarding dry powder formulations for pulmonary delivery by Rhodes University Dean of Pharmacy, Professor Sandile Khamanga, followed. Also from Pharmacy, Dr Theodore Duxbury delivered insight on harnessing fully engaged research, systems thinking, asset-based community development and epistemic justice for enhanced health promotion interventions.
Prof Srinivas spent time at the British Heart Foundation Centre on Population Approaches for Non-Communicable Diseases as part of an Oxford Fellowship she had secured under the Association of Commonwealth Universities Titular Fellowships. On her return in 2014, Prof Srinivas introduced the concept of community-engaged participatory research, focused on peer educators, to address the disproportionate challenges of non-communicable diseases in South Africa and initiated four projects focused on the co-creation of context-specific and culturally appropriate health literacy. Dr Duxbury’s Masters research project, supervised by Prof Srinivas, involved collaborating with peer educators at Rhodes University to strengthen workplace health promotion for the support staff at Rhodes University. Thereafter, the Talloires Network of Engaged Universities recognised Prof Sunitha Srinivas for her community-engaged scholarship.
The Director of Residential Operations at Rhodes University, Ms Jay Pillay, provided a perceptive presentation on ‘Leadership for Workplace Health Promotion in South African Universities: Focus on Post-TB Lung Disease and Employee Support’. Pillay highlighted how workplace health promotion has been incorporated at Rhodes University and shared some of her practical experience.
“The seminar offered diverse expertise, enhanced problem-solving, global perspectives, knowledge exchange, capacity building, and network expansion,” said Pillay. “Bringing together academics, professionals, and key resource people from Rhodes University allowed the delegates and presenters to adopt a comprehensive approach to workplace health promotion. This collaboration promoted employee and student well-being and advocacy for support in organisations.”
In her presentation, which explored how internationalisation could assist with promoting the topic, Ms Orla Quinlan compared and contrasted the National guidance that has been in place since 2020 in South Africa and India to support international collaboration.
Ms Quinlan spoke of the possibilities for cross-border collaboration in research, recommended Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) projects in teaching and learning and referred to the excellent presentation by Dr Theodore Duxbury as a live example of cross-border sharing of innovative practices in community health research.
Ms Shraddha Patnala, Founder of the Freelancing Quill, South Africa and former student of Rhodes University, also shared a digital project that she had initiated entitled “A Case for Co-creating Digital Media for Public Health Education” to help audiences move from unawareness to sustained behaviour change, using theory-informed design benchmarks.
“The interdisciplinary seminar covered a wide range of content and perspectives, including the medical causes of TB, the treatment for and the resistance to treatments of TB, the consequences for those suffering from post-Tuberculosis Lung Disease, both in terms of reduced physical health and continuing illness, as well as the social and economic impact on families. It was also a great example of Internationalisation in practice and an illustration of how with technology, imagination, networking and goodwill, the knowledge that is of mutual benefit to the efforts of education institutions and community settings in resource-constrained environments may easily be shared,” concluded Quinlan.