Date

Time

Topic

Venue

Level

Registration link

Feb 12

9:30-12:30

8. Advanced modelling / analysis

Online

Advanced

https://forms.gle/ggWA9iNTTrumhTAR8

Mar 5

9:30-12:30

1. Introduction to R

Online

Beginner

https://forms.gle/LZkH4hfgspekqbCcA

Mar 19

9:30-12:30

9. Data visualisation with R

Online

Advanced

https://forms.gle/12a3bt887wdCyS8S8

Apr 9

9:30-12:30

2. Group summaries and comparisons + epiR part 1

TBD

Beginner

https://forms.gle/eYFsbsN6KkcAU8BcA

Apr 30

9:30-12:30

3. Group summaries and comparisons + epiR part 2

TBD

Beginner

https://forms.gle/mtefApg8UgNbBarL9

Aug

TBD

4. Regression models in R

TBD

Intermediate

Registration circulated in June

Aug 

TBD

5. Intermediate data handling

TBD

Intermediate

Registration circulated in June

Sept 

TBD

6. Survival analysis in R

TBD

Intermediate

Registration circulated in June

Jan 2022

TBD

7. Advanced data handling

TBD

Advanced

Registration circulated in Jan

Maia Lesosky, Associate Professor and Head of Division

Email:  maia.lesosky@uct.ac.za

Phone:  021 650 4532

Publications

Biostatistician and Associate Professor, Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health and Family Medicine. Contributing Investigator with CIDRI-Africa (Wellcome Trust Centre), and with the NIHR Unit IMPALA studying respiratory outcomes across Africa. Maia has previously worked as Senior Lecturer – Medical Statistics – in the Department of Medicine at the University of Cape Town, as Extraordinary Lecturer in the Faculty of Veterinary Sciences at the University of Pretoria and as a research fellow at the University of Edinburgh, Institutes of Evolutionary Biology, Immunology and Infections Research and the Roslin Institute and at the Institute of Mathematics, Aalto University. She completed her PhD in 2009 in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Guelph, Canada with research on statistical inverse problems. Current interests are in supervised learning as related to cytokine and other biomarker assay profiles, particularly in TB disease progression and Bayesian mixture models for longitudinal HIV viral load data. Constant distractions are statistical graphics, ‘composite’ statistical methods, algorithmic statistical methods (aka machine learning) and R programming. The Biostats Lab works with the Cape-R Users Group to promote R programming around the Cape and wider afield. Please join if you are local to Cape Town (twitter @CapeRUser). We also run a regular statistical methods seminar series on the Health Sciences Faculty – announced on web and via twitter (@EpiBiostats_UCT).

Landon Myer, Professor, Head of Department and Director of School

Email:  landon.myer@uct.ac.za

Phone:  021 406 6661

Publications

Landon Myer is Director and Head of the School of Public Health and Family Medicine at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. He has training in social anthropology, clinical medicine and epidemiology. His research focuses on women's, maternal and child health in the context of HIV. He has lead multiple clinical and health systems studies investigating the health of HIV-infected women receiving ART during pregnancy and postpartum, as well as the health and development of HIV-exposed and -infected children and adolescents.

Lara Dugas, Professor and AXA Research Chair in Non-Communicable Disease (NCD) Epidemiology (2021-2026)

Email:  Lara.Dugas@uct.ac.za

Publications

Professor Lara Dugas, PhD, MPH, FTOS received her doctorate in Exercise Physiology from the UCT. In 2007 she joined Loyola University Chicago (LUC), utilising her training in the measurement of human metabolism, including whole body energy expenditure, diet and physical activity monitoring. In 2011, she completed her Masters in Clinical Research Methods and in 2013 she obtained her MPH in Epidemiology. In 2016 she was named LUC Stritch School of Medicine Junior Scientist of the year, and in the same year became a fellow of The Obesity Society. In 2020 she was awarded an Honorary Professorship at UCT. She maintains a joint appointment between UCT and LUC. Her research explores NCD risk in African-origin populations spanning the epidemiologic transition. Her focus is the role of the gut microbiota and intermediary metabolites, focusing on short chain fatty acids on obesity and diabetes risk. She currently has two NIH-funded studies, exploring the role of the gut microbiota and NCD risk in 5 African-origin populations and 2021 was awarded the AXA Research Chair in Non-Communicable Disease (NCD) Epidemiology (2021-2026).

Tamsin Phillips, Senior Lecturer/Research Officer

Email:  tammy.phillips@uct.ac.za

Tamsin Phillips is an epidemiologist in the Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics.  Her research focus is the continuum of care for women living with HIV. Her PhD investigated the impact of mobility and care transitions on adherence and retention in HIV care among pregnant and postpartum women in Gugulethu. She is also interested in the methodological considerations for measuring retention and adherence and the use of mobile health and smartphone technology for supporting the HIV care continuum. Tamsin recently received a VECD Fogarty Global Health Postdoctoral Fellowship through which she will explore longer-term patterns of disengage and re-engage in HIV care among postpartum women. She also teaches Introduction to Biostatistics as part of the MPH programme.

Kirsty Brittain, Lecturer/Research Officer

Email:  kirstybrittain@gmail.com

Kirsty Brittain is a Research Officer in the Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics. Her research interests include psychosocial aspects of maternal, child and adolescent health, including adherence and engagement in HIV care, behavioural risk factors, and mental health problems. Her current work focusses on pregnant and postpartum women living with HIV, with a particular emphasis on HIV-status disclosure and experiences of stigma. She teaches Introduction to Epidemiology as part of the Master of Public Health programme.

Hlengiwe Madlala, Lecturer/Research Officer

Email:  Hlengiwe.madlala@uct.ac.za

Hlengiwe Madlala is a PhD Physiologist who recently completed her MPH and currently work as a Research Officer in the Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics. Her research interests are co-morbidity of maternal obesity and HIV infection in pregnancy and underlying mechanisms for adverse birth outcomes. She manages a population-based cohort evaluating adverse pregnancy outcomes under the new policy of Option B+ strategy for prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT).

Elton Mukonda, Lecturer/Research Officer

Email:  elton.mukonda@uct.ac.za

Elton currently works as a Research Officer in the Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics. He is a trained demographer and also has experience working as a statistician and data analyst. He completed his MPhil in Demography in 2015 at the Centre for Actuarial Research (CARe), University of Cape Town, with research on estimating mortality for metropolitan populations in developing countries. Current interests include economic evaluation, statistical learning, longitudinal data analysis, actuarial modelling and bayesian statistics.

Thokozile Malaba, Lecturer/Research Officer

Email:  Thoko.Malaba@uct.ac.za

Thoko Malaba is an epidemiologist in the Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of Cape Town.  Her work focuses primarily on maternal and child health in the context of HIV, particularly the use of antiretroviral therapy in pregnancy.  She is currently involved in clinical, population-based and health systems research studies in HIV-infected women using different antiretroviral therapy regimens in pregnancy.  Her specific research interests are adverse birth outcomes and the methodological issues encountered in perinatal research studies.

Frissiano Honwana, Assistant Lecturer

Email:  Frissiano.Honwana@uct.ac.za

Frissiano Honwana is an assistant lecturer in the Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics. He completed his Masters in Statistics at University of KwaZulu-Natal. His areas of interest are longitudinal data analysis and infectious disease modelling. Frissiano is a member of South African Statistical Association (SASA).

Jasantha Odayar, Clinical Research Officer

Email:  Jasantha.Odayar@uct.ac.za

Jasantha Odayar is an epidemiologist in the Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and the Centre for Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Research (CIDER).  Her interests are in improving health care services, particularly for individuals requiring long-term care, including for HIV and TB.  She manages an implementation science trial (“PACART”) comparing routine clinics to community-based adherence clubs for antiretroviral therapy (ART) delivery in HIV-positive postpartum women who initiated ART in pregnancy. 

Tracy Glass, Statistical Analyst

Email:  Tracy.Glass @uct.ac.za

Tracy Glass (PhD candidate, UCT), currently works as a data analyst at the Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, UCT.  She completed the Masters in Public Health in 2016, specialising in epidemiology and biostatistics. Tracy previously worked as a research intern at the Burden of Disease Research Unit (BODRU), at the South African Medical Research Council. Her current interest include disease modelling.

Stanzi le Roux, PhD candidate

Dr Stanzi le Roux is a doctoral student and clinical epidemiologist in the School of Public Health and Family Medicine, University of Cape Town. She has a background in clinical paediatrics and child health, with previous appointments at the clinical research unit in Red Cross War Memorial Children's Hospital, and the Desmond Tutu TB research Centre at Tygerberg Hospital, in Cape Town. Her research focus is maternal and child health in the context of infectious diseases in southern Africa, and she is currently completing her doctoral thesis on comparative health outcomes of HIV-exposed uninfected children.

Chukwudi Nnaji, PhD candidate

LinkedIn Profile

Twitter handle: @ChuxNesta_Nnaji

Chukwudi Nnaji is a Nigerian medical doctor, with a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) degree. He completed his Master of Public Health (MPH) study at the University of Cape Town – with distinction in 2018, and now studying towards a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Public Health at the Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (RSTMH) and currently working as an adjunct Senior Scientist/Epidemiologist at Cochrane South Africa, based at the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC), Cape Town.

His research interests are in the areas of evidence based medicine, infectious disease epidemiology, vaccinology and vaccine implementation science. His PhD research aims to use multilevel analytical approaches to evaluate the burden, as well as individual-level and contextual enablers of missed opportunities for vaccination; while using the findings to design context-tailored quality improvement strategies for addressing identified missed opportunities for vaccination. He is supervised by Prof. Charles Wiysonge, Associate Prof. Maia Lesosky and Dr Duduzile Ndwandwe.

Annibale Cois

Email:  acois@sun.ac.za

Publications

Dr Annibale Cois is an Epidemiologist and Biostatistician, and a researcher in the Department of Global Health at Stellenbosch University. He holds an honorary position as a Senior Lecturer in the Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the School of Public Health of the University of Cape Town.

His background includes Master Degrees in Electrical Engineering (University of Cagliari, Italy) and Public Health (University of Cape Town), and a PhD in Public Health (University of Cape Town).

His current research interests focus primarily on the epidemiology of non-communicable diseases and associated risk factors in low- and middle-income countries and the application of advanced statistical methods for the joint analysis of multiple heterogeneous data sources. 

Recent works include the application of latent variables techniques to the estimation and modelling of measurement error in anthropometric characteristics in large-scale surveys; the joint analysis of multiple datasets to recover long-term trends in blood pressure, body mass index and other cardiovascular risk factors; the study of seasonal patterns of cardiovascular risk factors in the South African population and their socioeconomic correlates; the application of Bayesian estimation methods for the study of population pattern of alcohol consumption.

Dvora Joseph Davey

Dr. Dvora Joseph Davey is an Honorary Senior Lecturer in the Division of Biostatistics and Epidemiology at the University of Cape Town. Dr. Davey received her Master’s Degree in Public Health from Columbia University and her PhD in Epidemiology from the University of California, Los Angeles. Dr. Davey has over eighteen years’ experience in international health with extensive experience in the design, management and evaluation of HIV prevention and care, sexual, reproductive health interventions and studies.  Her current research focuses on evaluating how best to prevent HIV in pregnant and breastfeeding women, including sexually transmitted infection (STI) diagnosis and treatment, and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) in pregnant and breastfeeding women.

Nathan Ford

Kevin Kelly

Melissa Wallace

Jabulani Ncayiyana

Publications

Jabulani Ncayiyana is an epidemiologist with research interests in infectious diseases, child and adolescent health, spatial epidemiology and implementation science.