About us
Sandra Pretorius – dietician
The Soweto Cardiovascular Research Heart Unit (Socru) was set up in January 2006 in order to co-ordinate a range of research into cardiovascular disease in Soweto, South Africa, and to promote research collaboration in this area. Socru is a University of the Witwatersrand recognised research unit.
The unit is based at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto, south of Johannesburg. It works hand-in-hand with the Cardiac Department at the hospital, researching heart disease in patients that visit the hospital’s Cardiac Clinic. The clinic sees approximately 9000 patients per year.
“The unit’s mission is to do research in cardiovascular diseases that are common in Southern Africa, because little research is done in that area,” says the unit’s co-ordinator, Professor Karen Sliwa. “Conditions that are specific to Southern Africa need to be studied in our local environment. Little interest exists in other parts of the world to research diseases such as Peripartum Cardiomyopathy, since pathogeneses and management of such diseases is of lesser importance to the western world.”
Professor Sliwa has been conducting research in Cardiomyopathy and heart failure since 1996, when she did her PhD on the subject. She also supervises PhD students studying various aspects of cardiovascular disease.
Socru is funded primarily by the University of the Witwatersrand and receives project grants from the South African Medical Research Council, the Circulatory Disorder Research Fund, and also from businesses, including pharmaceutical companies Bayer, which sponsors this website, Pfizer, and pacemaker manufacturer Medtronic. Tiger Brands is the sponsor for a R1-million upgrade of the cardiac clinic, under its Unite for Health Programme.
“Cardiovascular disease is very common worldwide, but 90% of the money goes to 10% of the diseases,” says Sliwa. “Very little research is done on diseases that are common in Africa.”
About Prof Karen Sliwa
Prof Karen Sliwa – SOCRU co-ordinator
Prof Karen Sliwa, MD, PhD, FESC, FACC, DTM&H graduated from the Free University of Berlin, Germany, in 1990. She interrupted her medical studies to take up a one-year research scholarship for a MMed at Hadassah University, Jerusalem, Israel. Subsequently, she spent two years at the Tropical Disease Research Institute in Berlin, where she was involved in basic science research in macrophage activities in malaria.
In 1992 she decided to obtain further clinical training and applied in South Africa, where she hoped to gain more knowledge in infectious and tropical diseases. She retained her interest in research and enrolled for a part-time PhD at the University of the Witwatersrand (1998 - 2002). At the same time, she specialised as a specialist physician and cardiologist.
Karen worked at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, Soweto, and the University of the Witwatersrand from 1992 - 2009 as a senior houseman, registrar and consultant. She was subsequently appointed as an associate and later she got full professorship. In March 2010, she was appointed to a joint clinical and research position as a full professor in the Department of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town and the Groote Schuur Hospital.
For more than a decade, her main focus of research has been related to immune activation and left ventricular remodelling in idiopathic and peripartum cardiomyopathy (heart failure). Her work in relation to heart failure in pregnant women due to give birth, or just after delivery, emanates from careful descriptive studies into basic mechanism and has resulted in her initiating a promising new treatment. She is now involved in a dedicated cardiac disease and maternity clinic at the Groote Schuur Hospital. In addition, she has initiated, and leads, large African population studies.
About Kayleen Gal
Kayleen Gal – clinical research and trial monitoring
Gal gained clinical training in London at the Northwick Park Hospital. She started out as a research assistant in a Phase I unit and was quickly promoted to senior research assistant. She then worked her way up to study coordinator and then to trial monitoring. She spent time in Germany gaining experience and knowledge in their processes and procedures.
She transferred to South Africa in 2009 where she assisted a nephrologist in various chronic kidney failure trials at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital. During her time there, she met Prof Karen Sliwa and joined her research team as a clinical research associate. Gal is currently monitoring Phase III heart failure prevention studies, hypertension studies (HOPE 3 and APOLLO) and a trial in the investigation of the management of pericarditis (IMPI).
She has always been passionate about trial monitoring and clinical research. This has led her to open and operate a company based specifically on the requirements of running and performing clinical trials.
About Brenda Bogale
Bogale studied at the Dynamic Nursing College, in Benoni, where she obtained a certificate in Auxiliary Health Care. Having obtained her qualification, Bogale joined SOCRU in July 2009. In 2010, she obtained a GCP certificate from Wits. She currently works as a recruiter and health educator in the clinics and schools around Soweto, and acts as a research assistant for SOCRU.
Contact information
Soweto Cardiovascular Research Unit
The Wits Consortium Research Centre (Bara)
Orange Building
Corner of College and Theatre Roads
Behind the nurses residence
Chris Hani Baragwaneth Hospital
Soweto
Gauteng
Tel: +27 (0)11 983 6501
