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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

UFS research could light up South African homes

2016-01-21

Reitumetse Maloa, postgraduate student and researcher at the UFS Department of Microbial, Biochemical and Food Biotechnology, is using her research to provide solutions to the energy crises in South Africa.

A young researcher at the university is searching for the solution to South Africa’s energy and electricity problems from a rather unlikely source: cow dung.

“Cow dung could help us power South Africa,” explains Reitumetse Maloa, postgraduate student and researcher at the UFS Department of Microbial, Biochemical and Food Biotechnology.

Reitumetse’s research is trying to understand how the bacteria works that is responsible for producing biogas.

“Biogas can be used for cooking, heating, lighting and powering generators and turbines to make electricity. The remaining liquid effluent can fertilise crops, as it is high in nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.”

By using cow dung and food waste to produce biogas, we will be able to lower greenhouse gases.

Biogas is produced in a digester - an oxygen-free space in which bacteria break down or digest organic material fed into the system. This process naturally produces biogas, which is mainly a mixture of methane and carbon dioxide.

“Many countries, such as Germany and the United States, have begun generating electricity from cow dung and food waste, through a process known as biogas production. In South Africa, a number of industries, including waste-water treatment facilities and farms, have caught on to this technology, using it to generate heat and to power machines.”

Until recently the world has relied heavily on electricity derived from fossil fuels such as coal, natural gas and oil. Once these fuels have been extracted from underground reservoirs, they are treated or cleaned, transported to power plants and transformed into the electricity that will reach your house. Fossil fuels are considered a ‘dirty’ energy source which gives off greenhouse gases when burned. Those gases are the major contributing factor to climate change.

“We know very little about the interaction of the bacteria inside the biogas digester. To use biogas as a sustainable fuel source, we need to understand and describe the bacteria population and growth dynamics inside the digester to produce biogas optimally. Currently we are testing a variety of feedstock, including bran, maize and molasses, for biogas production potential, as well as optimising the conditions leading to maximum biogas production. We are also exploring the potential to use the effluent as fertiliser on local farms. The ultimate goal is to have biogas systems that will supply our university with clean energy.”

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