Congress Committee

The Organising Committee is led by senior executives of the Paediatric Cardiac Society of South Africa (PCSSA) and South African Heart Association.

Christopher Hugo-Hamman

Chairman

is past President of the PCSSA. He is a Lecturer Extraordinary at the University of Stellenbosch. A Rhodes Scholar at Jesus College, Oxford, he was previously Health Attaché at the South African diplomatic Mission to the European Union and Director of Ministerial Services in the Ministry of Health. A year ago he established a service for children and adults with heart disease in the Namibia. Dr Hugo-Hamman is the Chairman of the Organising Committee for 2013 and a member of the International Steering Committee for the World Congress.

Liesl Zühlke

is a Paediatric Cardiologist trained at Red Cross Children's Hospital in Cape Town and Uniklinium Düsseldorf in Germany. She is a recipient of a Discovery Foundation Academic Excellence Award, a Fogarty International Research Fellowship and is currently a Doctoral Fellow at the University of Cape Town having recently completed her MPH in Clinical Research.

Her doctoral thesis is on the clinical epidemiology of Rheumatic Heart Disease. She is secretary of the Paediatric Cardiac Society of South Africa, the Organizing Committee for the 6th World Congress and the Western Cape branch of the South African Heart Association. She is also on the board of Directors and the Scientific Committee of the Heart and Stroke Foundation of South Africa.

Andre Brooks

is a cardiothoracic surgeon at the University of Cape Town’s Chris Barnard Division of Cardiothoracic surgery, Red Cross Children’s War Memorial Hospital and Groote Schuur Hospital. He is interested in all aspects of congenital cardiac surgery, specifically the optimal management of complex congenital cardiac problems in the context of a developing country. Another area of interest is the development of a program for adults with congenital heart disease.

Ebrahim Hoosen

is Head of the Department Paediatric Cardiology at Inkosi Albert Luthuli Hospital in Durban. He is current President of the Paediatric Cardiac Society of South Africa. He was the coordinator of the important Audit of Paediatric Cardiac Services in our country.

John Hewitson

is Chief Cardio Thoracic-Surgeon at the Red Cross War Memorial Children's Hospital and Professor of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery in the University of Cape Town. is a former President of the PCSSA. He is the head of Paediatric Cardiac Services in the Western Cape. (Tygerberg and Red Cross Children's Hospitals) Dr Hewitson is the Chairman of the Scientific Committee for Surgery, for the World Congress.

John Lawrenson

is a former President of the PCSSA. He is the head of Paediatric Cardiac Services in the Western Cape. (Tygerberg and Red Cross Children's Hospitals)

He has trained in both adult and paediatric cardiology including a Fellowship in Paediatric Cardiology at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium. He has organised several conferences for the PCSSA, most recently the Annual Congress at the CTICC in 2003. He was a Faculty member for the 4th World Congress of Paediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery. Dr Lawrenson is Chairman of the Scientific Committee for Cardiology at the World Congress.

John Lawrenson Cardiology

Chairman

John Hewitson Cardiothoracic Surgery

Chairman

Karen Sliwe-Hahnle

Horst Siewert

Shakeel Qureshi

Jeff Jacobs

Joseph DeGiovanni

Gil Wernovsky

Jeff Harrisberg

Liesl Zühlke

Christopher Hugo-Hamman

Tom Mabin

Ebrahim Hoosen

Andrzej Okreglicki ('AO')