Presidential Address

As the newly elected President, I would like to share my vision for SARAA over the next 2 years and report on the new structure of our exco. To the rheumatology community who have expressed their confidence in me by electing me as president and to the now ex officio President, Elsa van Duuren who has been very supportive, I am very grateful. The newly constituted exco will be as follows:
  • Honorary secretary – Claudia Ickinger who will continue her hard work with managing the membership database, new memberships, liaising with E2 solutions and nominations.
  • Treasurer – Gail Faller who will take over this task from me, managing the SARAA finances.
  • SARAA biologics registry manager - Romela Benitha. This is an important new portfolio for the ongoing management of our registry and for the posing of new research questions. The task will require a biologics subcommittee to draw up a proposal concerning the interplay of biologics and tuberculosis in our country. This research study will start prospectively from 2012 and will continue until the aims have been met either in terms of patient numbers or time. I would ask that all rheumatologists participate in this initiative by assisting Romela with data collection and reporting of adverse events of patients on biologics.
  • President ex office – Elsa van Durren who will continue with her work on registry management, especially the biologics panel (who I must thank for their tireless and sometimes unrecognized work – but certainly appreciated by exco). Her experience at exco meetings and work with drawing up guidelines is acknowledged.
  • Webmaster – Mo Makda. Again this is an important new portfolio aimed at improving communication between exco, rheumatologists and the community. The intention is to improve on our existing website, make it more interactive and add value to everyone’s lives. I would like to encourage you to visit the website regularly to keep up with what is happening, to view exco minutes and to access new on line journals – hope to start this by the beginning of 2012.
  • Prof M. Tikly – who will continue to give invaluable advice and guidance on academic and general matters.
Each exco member forms a pivotal role in the forward success of our association and I am excited to be working with such an accomplished team. There has also been a review of the position of Shelly Traub, who has served as our biologics data capturer over the past 4 years. Her contract has been terminated and a new contract will come into effect shortly. Shelly will now serve as a full time secretary for SARAA and data capturer. Her office hours will be from 9am to 4pm for all secretarial matters of our growing organization. As first port of call for routine matters, I would like to ask all members to contact Shelly by e-mail or phone and she will escalate to the appropriate exco member. Her contact details will be posted on the website. Again a warm welcome to Shelly in her new full time position and I look forward to interacting with her on a regular basis. The new secretariat will be that of E2 solutions and this will also be posted on the website.

I would like to see the following accomplished in the next 2 years:
  • Finalize the section 21 registration and our PBO status – good news already is that Cipro have found our application and this will be followed up closely
  • Follow up on the algorithm for the management for RA. Apparently this is still sitting on the Minister of Health’s desk. I will follow this up – at the very least our members need an explanation of why this has not been processed.
  • Attempt to bring hydroxychloroquine to SA. Although this may be unachievable, it is worthy of an attempt as it is such an important every day prescription drug for practicing rheumatologists.
  • Promote training for rheumatology across all spectrums:
    • Continue with the initiative of sponsorship for the EULAR online course and post graduate courses for registrars. To encourage all further research from registrars.
    • Provide online rheumatology journals for all members as a means for ongoing education.
    • Encourage courses for rheumatology nursing training – will be working with Dr. B. Hodgkinson and Dr. E. van Duuren in this regard.
  • Encouraging new research from our Biologics registry pertinent to our country
  • Improving our existing SARAA website
  • To hold a symposium / AGM in 2012
As you are all aware, the next congress will be a combined SARAA / AFLAR meeting to be held in Durban, under the leadership of Prof Modi, and is anticipated to be in September 2013.

I look forward to serving you, the members in the next 2 years, hoping to make a meaningful impact in rheumatology in SA.

Yours truly
Clive Pettipher