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Nuclear Medicine
Smiling proudly are Dr Gerrit Engelbrecht, Head of the UFS Department of Nuclear Medicine, Dr Tebatso Tebeila, senior resident in the same department, and Prof Osayande Evbuomwan, Senior Lecturer and medical specialist in nuclear medicine in the Department of Nuclear Medicine, with the certificate indicating they are now a Clinical Theranostics Centre of Excellence.

The Department of Nuclear Medicine at the Universitas Academic Hospital (UAH) and the University of the Free State (UFS) have been certified as Clinical Theranostics Centers of Excellence from the International Centers for Precision Oncology Foundation (ICPO). The hospital now joins only two other centres in South Africa to achieve this prestigious recognition.

The certification followed a rigorous evaluation process by the ICPO Foundation, which assessed the department’s clinical standards, infrastructure, expertise, and commitment to advancing theranostics. The application and verification process was done by Dr Tebatso Tebeila, a senior resident at the department who has just passed her final exams. She was supported by Dr Gerrit Engelbrecht, Head of the UFS Department of Nuclear Medicine, in the process which included interviews with the ICPO accreditation and projects director Dr Marwa Hakkam. Dr Tebeila had also completed the ICPO short course in Radiomolecular Precision Oncology through the ICPO Academy of Theranostics.

The UAH Nuclear Medicine Department began theranostics activities about five years ago, particularly in neuroendocrine and prostate malignancies. Prof Osayande Evbuomwan, Senior Lecturer and medical specialist in nuclear medicine in the UFS Department of Nuclear Medicine, received training for this during his residency period and had completed a rigorous international training workshop organised by the International Atomic Energy Agency on theranostics, particularly in prostate cancer, neuroendocrine neoplasms and well differentiated thyroid cancer. Prof Evbuomwan passed all these training and skills down to the department. The certification was further strengthened by the installation of department’s new state-of-the-art digital PET/CT camera, placing it on par with similar academic departments in the country. The recognition was officially conferred during the ICPO Reception at the European Association of Nuclear Medicine Congress in Barcelona earlier this month.  

 

A milestone achievement

“Being granted this certification signifies international recognition of our hospital’s commitment to the highest clinical, academic, and ethical standards in theranostics. It confirms that our institution meets the global benchmarks for delivering precision oncology care that integrates diagnostics and therapy for personalised cancer management.

“For our department and the University of the Free State, this is a milestone achievement that highlights our leadership in nuclear medicine and molecular imaging. It strengthens our research and training capacity and also attracts residents who want to be trained in nuclear medicine. It also enhances collaboration with international partners and aligns with our mission to advance precision medicine in South Africa and beyond,” says Prof Evbuomwan.

Theranostics, he explains, is an aspect of nuclear medicine that involves the use of a tracer bound to a radioisotope that can specifically locate and image cancer cells with high precision, characterise them and determine how much radiation will get to them. Using the same tracer, but a different radioisotope for therapy, these cancer cells are targeted with high precision and destroyed. It could be so precise that it targets only the cancer, sparing most of the normal tissue and thus resulting in less serious side effects. It is an aspect of nuclear medicine that is bound to revolutionise cancer care.

Dr Gerrit Engelbrecht says as a department, they are honoured and deeply proud of this achievement as it reflects months of dedication, innovation, and teamwork. “It validates our commitment to excellence in improving patient care and academic advancement, and we are motivated to build on this success. We are also grateful to Dr Tebeila for her initiative, hard work, dedication and networking skills.

“We would like to thank the ICPO Foundation for this recognition and for its continued efforts to support theranostics in developing regions. We also acknowledge the hard work of our staff, and partners who made this possible. This milestone inspires us to continue driving innovation and equitable access to precision oncology in Bloemfontein, the Free State province and South Africa at large.”

 

Forefront of precision oncology 

According to Prof Evbuomwan, patients will also benefit from this certification as it translates to improved access to world-class, and evidence-based theranostic management. It means earlier diagnosis, more accurate therapy selection, and ultimately, better treatment outcomes and quality of life for those with some of these cancers. They strongly believe the patients in the Free State also deserve access to this management, as the world is now moving slowly into the era of personalised and precision medicine. The Universitas Academic Hospital is now among three centres in South Africa (Numeri in SBAH Pretoria and Umhlanga Molecular Imaging and Therapy Centre in Durban) to achieve this prestigious recognition, joining an international network of 46 centres, mostly located in low- and middle-income countries. This positions the UFS at the forefront of precision oncology on the African continent.

Prof Evbuomwan says they hope to use this new status to expand patient access to theranostic treatments, foster multidisciplinary collaborations within the Universitas academic circuit, and participate in global research initiatives through the ICPO Academy for Theranostics. Certifications like this, he continues, would also help to attract more staff and junior resident doctors to the facility. It will also help them train the next generation of nuclear medicine specialists and strengthen South Africa’s role in precision oncology. The ICPO will also offer direct assistance to the facility to achieve these objectives.

On her trip to the EANM Congress in Barcelona to receive the certificate and to attend the international congress, Dr Tebeila said it is always such an honour to attend international conferences and this year’s EANM was particularly invigorating with the latest scientific presentations in various theranostic applications by peers and well-known experts in the global nuclear medicine sphere. 

“The highlight was, of course, attending the annual Oncidium Foundation Ambassadors meeting and being part of the ICPO certification ceremony along with my counterparts from 23 other centres spanning Asia, Arab regions and Africa. 

“My wish is to see the UAH nuclear medicine department grow in leaps and bounds, epically in patient reach, clinical research with academic expansion and overall excellence in service delivery. This ICPO theranostics centre of excellence certification is only the beginning of what is to come.”

News Archive

UFS responds to concerns around high costs of higher education
2015-10-15

 

Dear Students

UFS responds to concerns around high costs of higher education

There is an understandable and shared concern among students in the country around the high costs of higher education. As you know, this also is a matter of deep concern on our campuses, which the University of the Free State (UFS) has made a priority in discussions with student leaders - and through new strategies to relieve the burden of costs on poor students and their families. In fact, in the past two weeks, the UFS leadership has again engaged students on the matter of fees in the future.

This is what we have done so far. We have maintained our position as one of the universities with the lowest tuition fees in the country. As you would have seen from recent newspaper reports on the cost of a degree at various institutions over the past five years, the UFS has had consistently low fees. This is not an accident; both the University Council and the executive leadership of the UFS is of one mind that we must offer a high quality education at minimum cost to all our students, despite the rising costs of operating a large multi-campus university with 30 000 students. Our commitment to you is to continue to keep those costs to students as low as possible, without compromising on the quality of education.

In addition, we took a decision earlier this year to become the first university to drop application fees for first-year students. We are proud of that achievement, since so many students fall at this first hurdle as they contemplate post-school education and training. We also waived registration fees for postgraduate students and now Research Master’s and PhD students can study tuition free under certain conditions. We raised more than R60 million from the private sector to enable talented students, who do not receive NSFAS funding, to complete their degree studies at the UFS. We set aside some of the university’s own funds to enable even more students to access finance for their studies. And we now have a special office set aside to counsel and assist students to apply for more than one scholarship to support their studies. The university does not follow a policy of maximizing exclusions. It has endeavoured and succeeded to turn around the majority of its potential deregistration cases. During 2015 we had 2 700 students at the risk of being de-registered, but our serious efforts resulted in only over 200 instances of exclusion we could not mitigate. As is the practice for the past few years, these students’ debt for 2015 has been reversed.

But, we do not only look for funds from outside to support our students. Last year we set up a Staff Fund to which ordinary members of the academic and support staff can contribute from their own, and sometimes very modest, salaries to enable Kovsie students to finish their degrees. We have volunteers who work on the No Student Hungry (NSH) Bursary Programme to raise funds for students who cannot afford a regular meal. We have an open line to rural and township schools to nominate poor students with good results for support by the Rector’s Fund, and some of those students are now in their final year of studies. And many of our staff support individual students in their homes and with their families, without being asked to do so. This is what we call the Human Project and it remains central to the way in which we deal with students.

We will of course continue to make representation to government, the private sector, and individuals to increase funding, especially for first-generation students, and for families where more than one student is at university. We will continue to take to the road to raise funds from companies and foundations to finance our students. We will expand on-campus opportunities for limited working hours for students who wish to earn some money to support their studies. As we have said often before, no student who passes all their courses or modules will be turned away simply because they do not have the funds to study.

The UFS discusses and agrees to fee increases with our students well in advance of the next academic year. None of these decisions are taken without the agreement of the student leadership and thus far these engagements, while tough, have always been done in good faith and with the students’ interests at heart.

It is important for you to know that, with the declining government subsidy, in real terms, and the expanding needs of our students, we will not be able to keep the university running without fees - even though this source of revenue comes mainly through scholarships and bursaries. We need to compensate staff, purchase new library books and renew journal subscriptions (which is very difficult given the low value of the Rand), upgrade computers and software, pay rates and taxes, purchase laboratory equipment, pay the water and electricity bills, expand internet services, upgrade campus security, and hire more academics to keep class sizes reasonably small. It is important for you to know that the university has managed to avoid increasing student fees as a result of much higher municipal rates. Our lecturers are not the highest paid in the country and financially we run a tight ship. We consistently achieve unqualified audits and we are known to be one of the universities that manage its NSFAS contributions with great efficiency. We do this because of our commitment to ensure that our students are able to enjoy a high quality of education on a stable campus where there is a deep respect for all campus citizens.

Despite all these efforts, the most important message we wish to communicate, is that the door remains open for continued discussion with student leaders as we continue to find ways of keeping university education open and accessible to all qualifying students. At the same time, the UFS leadership is involved in discussions with government about how to best manage the escalating cost of higher education for our dents.

Thank you for your support and understanding at this time and be assured, once again, of our commitment to students as a matter of priority to the university leadership.

Best regards

Prof Jonathan Jansen
Vice-Chancellor and Rector

University of the Free State
19 October 2015

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