Media Invitation

MRC/Netcare Awards gala dinner: 3 December 2009

Members of the media are invited to the MRC/Netcare Awards gala dinner on 3 December 2009 to be held at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Conference Centre in Parow Valley, Cape Town. The event will also celebrate the 42nd anniversary of the 1st heart transplant that took place at Groote Schuur Hospital on 3 December 1967.

The winner of the Hamilton Naki Clinical Scholarship will be announced at the gala dinner. This award aims to address the shortage of qualified academic doctors available to serve in leadership roles in South African medical schools. Netcare Health Partners for Life programme, under the umbrella of the Physician Partnership Trust, launched the Hamilton Naki Scholarship in 2007.  The family of Hamilton Naki will also attend the event.

A second award on the evening will be handed over to Prof Paul van Helden, who is the MRC’s silver award winner, for his research in the field of TB with an interest in the molecular biology of the disease. Dr Van Helden is the Director of the MRC Centre for Molecular and Cellular Biology, which is based at the Tygerberg Campus of the University of Stellenbosch (US). He also serves as Chairperson of the Department of Biomedical Sciences, thus contributing to the Division of Molecular Biology and Human Genetics (US) and the Division of Anatomy and Medical Physiology (US).

Why Hamilton Naki? Who was he?
Hamilton Naki was a man with only a primary school education who learnt surgical techniques in the laboratory of Prof Christiaan Barnard at Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town. As a demonstrator in the surgical laboratory, he assisted in the training of scores of surgeons from all over the world who passed through the world famous heart transplant unit.

In an interview shortly before his death in 2001, Barnard called Naki "one of the great researchers of all time in the field of heart transplants," adding that Naki "was a better craftsman than me, especially when it came to stitching."

Hamilton Naki made a major contribution to medical education in South Africa and this Clinical Scholarship was established to recognise his love for learning and to honour his memory. The purpose of the scholarship is to contribute to the pool of world-class professors and academics in all branches of medicine that will teach and conduct research as complete as any worldwide.

The scholarship was the brainchild of Prof Bongani Mayosi, Head of the Department of Medicine at Groote Schuur Hospital and the University of Cape Town, and has been driven and organised by Dr Victor Litlhakanyane, a Netcare director as well as the Chairman of the Physician Partnership Trust. The Trust established a Selection Committee with members from all South African medical schools to assist them in identifying suitably qualified candidates eligible to become recipients of the Scholarship.

DATE:	3 December 2009
TIME:	18:00 – 21:00
VENUE:	MRC Conference Centre (Opposite Tygerberg Hospital) Francie Van Zijl Drive, Parow Valley Cape Town

End