WGO South African Training Centre 25-year anniversary

Abstract

Training of sub-Saharan doctors in Gastroenterology was started by Prof. Issy Segal at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in 1975. The Gastrointestinal (GI) Unit at the time trained local gastroenterologists, but Prof. Segal saw the need for an African wide training academy. In the late 1990’s Prof. Segal approached the German Foundation – Prof. Maynard Claasen (also president of WGO 1998 - 2002), to assist in establishing an environment where sub-Saharan doctors could be trained in gastroenterology. This would afford them the opportunity to develop both cognitive and psychomotor skills that will allow them to take back to their countries and practice gastroenterology. The German Foundation was the first to contribute financially and intellectually to this concept. The African Institute for Digestive Diseases (AIDD – see logo below) was only realised three decades later in 1992 at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto. During that time this institute trained not only local but African healthcare workers in gastroenterology.