Buchanan-Lee's innovative programme reaps the fruit

Dr Biddy Buchanan-Lee.

UCT senior physician and lecturer Dr Biddy Buchanan-Lee has been elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in recognition of the "innovative" teaching programme she started in the Faculty of Health Sciences.

Buchanan-Lee received special acknowledgement from the president of the Royal College for the programme she developed in Khayelitsha for fourth-year medical students.

The programme exposes students to the real world of patient-overcrowding and poor facilities.

Students are taught how to manage complicated diseases to reduce morbidity and mortality, and improve the quality of life of patients at a primary health care level.

Patients, on the other hand, are empowered with health knowledge in their own language to improve compliance and reduce the cost of health care.

Buchanan-Lee says students are encouraged to do "a lot more thinking".

The Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), an international medical and humanitarian aid organisation, intends to recruit her students to work elsewhere in African countries, where similar problems are common.