The UAB Department of Surgery's Jeffrey Kerby, M.D., Daniel Chu, M.D., Adam Beck, M.D., Kristi Herritz, Herbert Chen, M.D., Melanie Morris, M.D., and Greg Kennedy, M.D., Ph.D., attend the 2018 Surgical Update Conference in Cape Town Africa on Feb. 27. (Photo courtesy of Daniel Chu, M.D., via Twitter)

A contingent of UAB surgeons travelled to Cape Town, South Africa, in late February to the Surgical Update Conference 2018 hosted by University of Cape Town Division of General Surgery. The conference was a great opportunity to share knowledge and build new research and education partnerships between the two institutions. This invitation developed out of ongoing collaboration between transplant surgeon Jayme Locke, M.D., and South African surgeon Elmi Muller, who pioneered HIV-positive kidney transplants using deceased HIV-positive donors at Groote Schuur Hospital at the University of Cape Town in 2007. Read more about their work here.

UAB has invited faculty from the University of Cape Town to attend the 2019 UAB General Surgery CME Course, which will be held Feb. 1-2, 2019, in Birmingham, Alabama. UAB surgeons also plan to attend the 2019 Surgical Update Conference in South Africa.

As part of a larger initiative by the UAB School of Medicine, UAB and the University of Cape Town are also exploring collaborative opportunities in the key areas of neurosciences, cancer, disparities, non-communicable diseases, genomics/PMI and anesthesiology. Visitors from the University of Cape Town attended meetings hosted by the UAB School of Medicine March 5-8 to discuss potential opportunities in these areas.