DPHRU addresses the national priorities of increasing life expectancy, decreasing maternal and child mortality and strengthening health system effectiveness. It investigates  genetic, physiological, psycho-social, and lifestyle determinants of growth and development, obesity and risk of cardio-metabolic diseases, and healthy ageing.  DPHRU adopts a multidisciplinary approach and associated methodologies to understand physical and mental health across the life course and the transgenerational effects and to identify possible interventions schemes to improve health outcomes.

The Unit also forms a unique research platform with substantial infrastructure and equipment, extensive longitudinal data and well-established links with the urban and rural South African communities. Using more than twenty years of longitudinal data from the Birth-to-Twenty cohort study and longitudinal statistical modelling, the growth and development from birth to 20 years of age of children born in 1990 in Soweto has been characterised.

DPHRU has recently launched the African Centre for Obesity Prevention (ACTION) which aims to raise awareness on obesity and associated diseases by providing evidence-based information on obesity, and to engage with the public through recommendations on how to engage in a healthy lifestyle.

Clinical Trials

The Unit has sustained an active programme of randomized clinical trials to answer important intervention questions relating to maternal and perinatal health in low-resource settings.

The   Calcium   and   Pre-eclampsia  study   is  in  the fifth  year  of  recruitment, with  90%  of  the  sample size  recruited. ECRU is the lead institution in this placebo-controlled trial of calcium supplementation commencing before pregnancy in women with previous pre-eclampsia.  The study   sites are   East London, CHBH, University of Cape Town, University of Stellenbosch, Harare University and several sites in Argentina.

Co-ordination is by World  Health  Organisation, and funding  via the  University  of British  Columbia,  and Grantee of the  Bill and  Melinda  Gates Foundation. In 2015,  we commenced recruitment for the  Gentle Assisted Pushing study  to  assess the  benefits and risks  of  upright posture  and   upright posture  with controlled manual fundal  pressure, versus routine care   in  the   second stage of  labour. The study   is coordinated and funded by the World Health Organization.

In the biennium, we continued preparations for participation in the ECHO study, a multi-centre randomized trial comparing pregnancy risk and HIV acquisition between three contraceptive options: Depot medroxyprogesterone acetate, levonorgestrel implants and the copper intrauterine device.

Systematic Reviews

The Unit has continued to update and add to over fifty Cochrane systematic reviews published in the Cochrane Library.

Innovations

A new method of management of shoulder dystocia called Posterior Axilla Sling Traction has been designed, which   has   been included in obstetric training programme  in several countries.

Research Training

Research methods courses, funded by World Health Organization, for researchers from South Africa and the WHO AFRO region are run on an annual basis.

Research Recognition

The Unit received re-accreditation as a WHO Collaborating Centre for Research Synthesis in Reproductive Health  in 2015.

The Empilweni Services and Research Unit (ESRU) based within the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health at the RMMCH is one of the newest officially recognized members of the Faculty of Health Sciences at Wits. The unit obtained official  recognition in late 2014. The unit is headed by its Director Professor Ashraf Coovadia and has a team of senior clinical researchers including Professor Gayle Sherman, Dr Karl Technau, Dr Renate Strehlau, Dr Gary Reubenson, Dr Gill Sorour and Prof. Joanne Potterton.

Historically, this unit grew out of a need to provide Antiretroviral access to HIV-infected children receiving care within the Department of  Paediatrics at Wits. Professor Ashraf Coovadia along with Professor Tammy Meyers (Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital CHBAH) and Dr Dalo Ndiweni (Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital - CMJAH) initially created the Wits Paeds Group which was a network of Paediatric HIV clinics that provided state-of-the art services to infants and children who were HIV-exposed or HIV-infected. This group later called the Wits Paediatric HIV Clinics, continued to grow in staffing as well as began research projects  at the Harriet Shezi Children¡¯s HIV clinic at CHBAH. In 2000 clinical research began within the Paediatric HIV services at RMMCH which was later called the Empilweni Clinic. Empilweni was chosen as its name as it is translated from isiZulu as ¡®a place of life¡¯.

In 2010, the Empilweni Services and Research Unit was established as an entity within the Wits Health Consortium as the Harriet Shezi Children¡¯s research unit had become part of the newly established Wits HIV Research Institute (WRHI). ESRU, which received funding from WRHI as a sub-recipient of the Presidential Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), continued to advance its services for HIV-infected children as well as HIV-infected mothers and their HIV-exposed infants as well as its research agenda.

Today ESRU boasts a staff compliment of   more than 40 individuals involved in either research or service provision at the RMMCH. Its work spans advocacy, training, clinical research and, importantly, overseeing and managing the two important HIV programmes of the National Department of Health being the Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV (PMTCT) and the Paediatric HIV treatment programme. There are several NIH funded clinical research projects as well as pharma sponsored trails. ESRU remains one of few Paediatric research sites across the province and indeed the country. 
The official recognition of the unit by the Faculty of Health Sciences in 2014 and the construction of the new three story building at RMMCH were major highlights during the review period.

The cross Faculty (Science and Health Sciences) Life Sciences Imaging Centre is an open central facility located at the Medical School of the University of the Witwatersrand.

Our mission is to develop a teaching and learning centre, to assist Honours, Masters and Doctoral students, post-doctoral fellows and all staff members with microscopy related research. We provide services to develop molecular and cell biology studies at Wits with a cell culture room, a preparation room for biological samples and our confocal and bright-field/fluorescence microscopes. The objective of the Centre is to provide current and emerging technologies involving microscopy and imaging in Life Sciences. We are promoting cutting edge research in basic and applied sciences, which include a wide range of studies: viruses, plants, bacteria, fungi, pharmacology, genetics and neurosciences are some examples. We promote quality training and education through individual training sessions, lectures for students participating in different Life Sciences programs and formal courses organized with our different partners, such as Carl Zeiss.

Services offered:

• Individual instruction in the use of the confocal microscope for students and all staff members
• Academic assistance with project design, cell culture, sample preparation, image capturing and image analysis
• Workshops organized in the microscopy unit during the year.
• Co-supervision of students