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Voices from the Free State podcast: Episode five – featuring Dr Anchen Laubscher

07 June 2021 | Story Dr Nitha Ramnath

A passion for evidence-based medicine and the notion of value in healthcare is what drives Dr Anchen Laubscher, our guest in the fifth episode of the Voices from the Free State podcast. Anchen is driven to ensure that healthcare is scientifically proven, of high quality, cost effective, and tailored to a patient’s needs.

François van Schalkwyk and Keenan Carelse, UFS alumni leading the university’s United Kingdom Alumni Chapter, have put their voices together to produce and direct the podcast series. Intended to reconnect alumni with the university and their university experience, the podcasts will be featured on the first Monday of every month, ending in November 2021. Our featured alumni share and reflect on their experiences at the UFS, how it has shaped their lives, and relate why their ongoing association with the UFS is still relevant and important. The podcasts are authentic conversations – they provide an opportunity for the university to understand and learn about the experiences of its alumni and to celebrate the diversity and touchpoints that unite them.

Our podcast guest

Anchen joined Netcare in 2007 as an aeromedical doctor and has been with the group for almost 14 years. As Group Medical Director of Netcare Ltd, Anchen is responsible for the strategic oversight and operational execution of all clinical and quality-related matters across the different divisions of Netcare. Leading a team of subject matter experts, Anchen oversees the group’s key deliverables related to the value of care, encompassing quality outcomes, patient safety, patient experience, and episode cost efficiency, with all components of ‘value’ digitally enabled and data driven.

Anchen is a member of the Hospital Association of South Africa (HASA) subcommittee for Clinical Quality and the South African Committee of Medical Deans (SACOMD) initiative, which was constituted to address the human resource dilemma specifically related to the training of doctors in South Africa. She is a Council member of the University of the Free State, where she also serves on the Senate and holds director appointments in the Mother and Child Academic Hospital (MACAH) Foundation, the My Walk My Soul collaboration between Netcare and Adcock-Ingram and the University of Cape Town Medical Centre Ltd. Anchen played a pioneering leadership role in South Africa’s response to the 2014 global Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak, which continues in her role as Gold Command in Netcare and as member of various national committee and advisory structures related to the COVID-19 pandemic preparedness and response. For her role in the South African EVD response, she was recognised with an honorary award from the South African Military Health Services (SAMHS).

Clinically, Anchen continues to contribute to the specialty of emergency medicine, specifically pre-hospital and aeromedicine. She continues to be involved at her alma mater through ad hoc lecturing in electives, research support at GIBS, and participating in health-care courses and conferences such as the 2020 Healthcare Industry Update and Innovation Conference.

Stay tuned for episode six to be released on 5 July 2021.

For further information regarding the podcast series, or to propose other alumni guests, please email us at alumnipodcast@ufs.ac.za

Listen to all the Voices from the Free State podcasts.

News Archive

Project aims to boost science pass rate

2009-01-19

Attending the launch of the HP grant of about R1 million to the UFS are, from the left: Mr Leon Erasmus, Country Manager for HP Technology Services in South Africa, Prof. Teuns Verschoor, Acting Rector of the UFS, and Mr Cobus van Breda, researcher at the UFS's Centre for Education Development and manager of the project.
Photo: Lacea Loader

The University of the Free State (UFS), in partnership with computer giant Hewlett Packard (HP), wants to boost the pass rate of its science students by using mobile technology.

The UFS is one of only 15 universities across Europe, the Middle East and Africa and the only university in South Africa to receive a grant from HP to promote mobile technology for teaching in higher education valued at USD$ 100,000 (or about R1 million). Altogether 80 universities from 28 countries applied for the grant.

“Last year HP invited a number of selected universities to submit proposals in which they had to explain how they are going to utilise mobile technologies in the redesign of a course that is presented at the university. The proposal of the Centre for Education Development (CED) at the UFS entitled “Understanding Physics through data logging” was accepted,” says Mr Cobus van Breda, researcher at CED and manager of the project.

According to Mr van Breda, students who do not meet the entrance requirements for the three-year B.Sc. programme have to enroll for the four-year curriculum with the first year actually preparing them for the three-year curriculum.

In order to increase the success rate of these students, the project envisages to enhance their understanding of science principles by utilising the advantages of personal computer (PC) tablet technology and other information and communication technologies (ICT) to support effective teaching and learning methodology.

“By using PC tablet technology in collaboration with data-logging software, a personal response system, the internet and other interactive ICT applications, an environment different from a traditional teaching milieu is created. This will consequently result in a different approach to addressing students’ learning issues,” says Mr van Breda.

The pilot project was launched during the fourth term of 2008 when 130 first-year B.Sc. students (of the four-year curriculum) did the practical component of the physics section of the Concepts in General Science (CGS) module by conducting experiments in a computerised laboratory, using data-logging software amongst other technology applications. “The pilot project delivered good results and students found the interactive application very helpful,” says Mr van Breda.

”The unique feature of the latter is the fact that real-life data can be collected with electronic sensors and instantly presented as computer graphs. It can then be analysed and interpreted immediately, thus more time can be devoted to actual Science principles and phenomena and less time on time-consuming data processing,” says Mr van Breda.

The CGS module can be seen as a prerequisite for further studies in physics at university level and in this regard it is of essence to keep looking for new models of learning and teaching which can result in student success. This year the theoretical and practical component of the physics section of the CGS programme will be done in an integrated manner.

Media Release
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Assistant Director: Media Liaison
Tel: 051 401 2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: loaderl.stg@ufs.ac.za
16 January 2009

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