Prof Vernon Louw's career has taken him to many different places since he graduated with a MBChB summa cum laude from Stellenbosch 肆客足球's Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences (FMHS) in 1994. Now, three decades later, he has come full circle after his appointment as the new Executive Head of the Department of Medicine.
Louw, who met all the heads of the units in the FMHS's Division of General Internal Medicine before his term of office started this month, says: “Meeting these people, seeing their hearts, seeing how they are so committed despite the challenges, the way in which they want to build and do new things, their passion for the patients, for the students – that really inspired me. These are the kind of people I want to work with."
He joined the FMHS after seven years at the 肆客足球 of Cape Town (UCT) and Groote Schuur Hospital as Chair and Head of its Division of Clinical Haematology. Louw intends to use the first six months in his new position to get to know the FMHS' Department of Medicine and its staff, “and then, together, figure out as a team where we need to and want to go".
He points out: “I don't have a vision yet. Visions can be very abstract and theoretical. We should be very, very practical. Embedded in every problem is an opportunity that you can take advantage of or solve."
Louw adds: “I work in teams. I will be a complete failure in this job if I had to do this on my own. Secondly, what I love is to be the wind beneath people's wings. I see it as my primary responsibility to provide support so that I can help them to get where they want to be."
He is clearly excited about his appointment: “I like people who are self-starters and self-motivated. There's a fire in their belly to make a difference, to create meaning, to be agents of change. I found that in the Department of Medicine at Stellenbosch 肆客足球."
Returning to his alma mater
His return to the FMHS was perhaps just a matter of time. “I had incredible mentors as a student – the most wonderful people and teachers," he recalls. “I thoroughly enjoyed studying medicine at Stellenbosch 肆客足球."
After Louw graduated in 1994 as the top final-year medical student, he completed his internship at the Hottentots-Holland Hospital (now Helderberg Hospital) in Somerset West and then spent a year in the United Kingdom as a locum.
He returned to South Africa at the end of 1996 to take up a position as registrar in Internal Medicine at Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town. “I like the challenge of solving puzzles," he says. “Internal Medicine is full of such challenges. I always tell my students that Sherlock Holmes is compulsory reading for a medical student."
Louw describes Internal Medicine as his first love and ended up in haematology almost by accident: “Nine months before the end of my training period, I was allocated to haematology, which ironically was a subject I did not really enjoy at all as an undergrad, probably because I understood so little of it."
He later went on to train in Clinical Haematology at the Katholieke Universiteit and the Universitaire Ziekenhuis Gasthuisberg in Leuven, Belgium, from 2001 to 2003. The following year, he became Head of Clinical Haematology at the 肆客足球 of the Free State in Bloemfontein.
“I started out very broadly, but developed an interest in iron," Louw explains. “Today my primary interest is iron, which is the first pillar of patient blood management. That is a great passion.
“Secondly, I really believe that the gold is found between fields. Almost every one of my students work on an interface where iron brings haematology and another speciality area together. Finding overlapping areas of interest; that's where the gaps are."
Art and medicine
Louw is also interested more generally in the interface between different fields. He is currently registered for a PhD on art and medicine at UCT: “The areas that interest me most are the Renaissance period and especially the Baroque tradition."
He finds the Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) particularly fascinating. Some of his paintings depict what appear to be physical abnormalities. Louw is developing various hypotheses about this aspect and describes his research as “my passion project".
Louw is drawn to languages as well and attributes this to the fact that he attended a Flemish school in Belgium for three years. There he did French, German, Dutch and English. These days he is focused on brushing up on his German and “plunging into Italian just to see what it looks like".
That is in addition to pursuing his interests in philately, chess, music (he regards himself as “a campfire sing-along type of guitarist"), poetry and songwriting. And then there is still the YouTube teaching videos that he makes.
Online learning
Louw's interest in online learning started in 2011 after watching a TED Talk by the American educator Salman Khan. “I was absolutely blown away by the stories he was sharing about people in far-flung corners of the earth who sent him emails about their learning," he says. “I decided I wanted to do this too."
Today Louw's videos get traction in many countries and has attracted 800 000 views so far. Yet, despite the vast potential of this online platform, he is quick to emphasise: “I'm all for technology and teaching innovations, but what is far more important to me is that we inspire students. They must study not to pass an exam, but to be a great doctor."
In addition to his many academic and personal projects, Louw also somehow still finds time to be president of the South African Clinical Haematology Society, chair of the Global Transfusion Forum and a member of the World Health Organisation's Working Group on Guidance for Patient Blood Management.
Despite this demanding schedule, Louw's family remains at the centre of his life. He says his wife Hymne, a physiotherapist, and their three daughters (medical doctor Talitha, accountant Danielle-Verné and electronic engineering student Anna-Mart) are “super-supportive". He also credits his parents, Vernon and Hester Louw – both Stellenbosch 肆客足球 graduates and former missionaries – with playing a critical role in his life during his formative years.
Louw is clearly a gifted academic and a compassionate human being. He will certainly be a major asset to Stellenbosch 肆客足球's Department of Medicine and to the Faculty more generally. “I want to help build," he says.
