Staff Profiles

MB BCh (Witwatersrand 1973); MRCOG (RCOG, 1980); DSc (Witwatersrand 2015)

Summary:  Justus Hofmeyr trained at the University of the Witwatersrand (1973) and worked at Holy Cross mission Hospital in the then Transkei before specialising in Obstetrics and Gynaecology. He studied fetal physiology with Geoffrey Dawes in Oxford in 1983/4.  He was head of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Coronation Hospital from 1988 and transferred to the Frere/Cecilia Makiwane hospitals in 2000. In 2020 he was appointed Professor, Obstetrics and Gynaecology Department, University of Botdwana.  In 2013 was awarded the DSc (Wits).  His research interests have been innovations, randomized trials and Cochrane stsematic reviews relevant to maternal health in low-resource settings, as well as research capacity building.  Innovations included titrated oral misoprostol solution for labour induction, the first randomized trials of delayed cord clamping for preterm birth and of misoprostol for postpartum heamorrhage, and posterior axilla sling traction for shoulder dystocia. He has published 340+ peer-reviewed papers and 9 audioviual teaching videos for the WHO Reproductive Health Library.  He has assited his wife Carol with community development projects in rural Eastern Cape through the Keiskamma Trust.

Clinical and practical teaching in Obstetrics and Gynaecology

Produced several teaching videos for WHO Reproductive Health Library https://extranet.who.int/rhl/videos

Research capacity-building

• Supervised 9 successful PhD candidates
• In-service training of research midwives over the last 30 years
• Run annual research methods courses funded by WHO in East London 2001 - 2015 – attended by over 300 prospective researchers from South Africa and other African countries.

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• Objectives of research: to improve care for mothers and babies in low-resource settings, through primary clinical research (mainly randomized clinical trials), research synthesis (systematic reviews), research training, postgraduate teaching and capacity development.
• Effective Care Research Unit (ECRU) has brought major international research funding been accredited as a World Health Organization Collaborating Centre in Research Synthesis.

• Supervised 9 successful PhD candidates and many MMed candidates

Hofmeyr GJ, Singata-Madliki M. Novel Suction Tube Uterine Tamponade for treating intractable postpartum haemorrhage: Description of technique and report of 3 cases. BJOG. 2020 Feb 11

Hofmeyr GJ, Middleton K, Singata-Madliki M. Randomized feasibility study of suction-tube uterine tamponade for postpartum hemorrhageInt J Gynaecol Obstet. 2019 Sep;146(3):339-343 Winner of JJ Sciarra Prize for best LMIC paper 2019

The Evidence for Contraceptive Options and HIV Outcomes (ECHO) Trial Consortium. HIV incidence among women using intramuscular depot medroxyprogesterone acetate, a copper intrauterine device, or a levonorgestrel implant for contraception: a randomized, open-label clinical trial. Lancet. 2019;394:303-13

Hofmeyr GJ, et al; Calcium and Pre-eclampsia Study Group. Prepregnancy and early pregnancy calcium supplementation among women at high risk of pre-eclampsia: a multicentre, double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled trial. Lancet. 2019 Jan 26;393(10169):330-339