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Keymanthri Moodley

Distinguished Professor in the Department of Medicine and Director, The Centre for Medical Ethics & Law, Stellenbosch University

Keymanthri Moodley completed her undergraduate medical training in 1988 at the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal and spent 3 years in Internal Medicine at King Edward VIII and RK Khan Hospitals. This was followed by postgraduate training in Family Medicine at Stellenbosch University. She was appointed as a Family Physician in 1997 after obtaining her Masters in Family Medicine, cum laude. She was awarded the Claude Leon Harris medal by the Colleges of Medicine in SA for outstanding performance in the FCFP exam. In 1999, Keymanthri obtained her Masters in Philosophy (Applied Ethics), cum laude. She taught medical under- and postgraduates in Family Medicine and Bioethics until 2003. In 2004 she completed her doctorate in Bioethics and was appointed as Associate Professor in 2005. In 2015 she was promoted to full professor. She currently heads the Centre for Medical Ethics and Law, Department of Medicine, Stellenbosch University. She is an Adjunct Professor, Department of Social Medicine at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, USA.

In her capacity as Director of the Centre, Keymanthri co-ordinates its functions with the assistance of a senior lecturer, a lecturer, two administrative assistants, a research assistant and 33 part-time lecturers. She has been awarded five international grants to the value of approximately 68 million rand. Under her leadership the Centre has grown expansively over the past 20 years and is one of the leading Centres in Medical Ethics in South Africa. The Centre was recently re-designated as a Collaborating Centre in Bioethics by the World Health Organisation, one of twelve in the world and the first on the African continent.

Keymanthri was rated by the National Research Foundation (NRF) as an established researcher in 2019 and has numerous national and international publications. She has presented at national and international conferences, mostly as an invited speaker. In addition, she has worked as principal investigator on clinical trials since 1999, and served on the University Research Ethics Committee for more than a decade. She has provided Good Clinical Practice (GCP) training at the faculty for the past 18 years. In 2011 she re-established the Clinical Ethics Committee at Tygerberg Hospital on which she currently serves. She has also served on the Ethics Advisory Board of the Netcare group of private hospitals. In 2010 she was appointed to the National Health Research Ethics Council (NHREC) and the Board of the Medical Research Council (MRC) by the Ministry of Health. In 2013, she was re-appointed to the Board of the MRC to serve a second term of office.

Internationally, Keymanthri has served on the SAGE working group researching Immunisation during Humanitarian Crises for the World Health Organization (WHO). At the invitation of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the United States she has served on the HIV Preventive Research Data and Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) and on the NIH African DSMB. In 2011, together with 10 other ethics experts in South Africa, she edited a new book on medical ethics, law and human rights with an online CPD program attached to the book. The second edition was published in 2018. Since 2011, she has co-hosted an NIH Fogarty program to develop capacity in Health Research Ethics in Africa in collaboration with the Bioethics Center, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, USA. The program has graduated 40 postgraduate scholars from Africa over 5 years. In 2013 she was awarded a second NIH grant to examine the ethical and social issues associated with HIV Cure research. In 2015 Keymanthri completed an Executive MBA at the Graduate School of Business, University of Cape Town. Her dissertation focused on the role of governance in building trust in biobanking in South Africa. This work was augmented by an NIH grant to fund research on Genomic Biobanking. Her capacity development efforts in Africa were rewarded in 2017 when she was awarded her 4th NIH grant to develop a Bioethics Leadership program in Africa. The Centre has 2 PhD graduates, and 5 doctoral students from 4 African countries enrolled on this program.

She has served on the International AIDS Society (IAS) HIV Cure International Scientific Working Group, the IAS Towards an HIV Cure Initiative and the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts Working Group on Ebola Vaccines and Vaccinations by the World Health Organisation (WHO).​ Keymanthri currently serves on the Scientific Advisory Committee of the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP), based in the Hague, Netherlands. She has served on the International Paralympic Committee Science and Research Working Group. Her latest project explores the ethical, legal and social implications (ELSI) of big data and Artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare and health research.

Experience

  • –present
    Director, The Centre for Medical Ethics & Law, Stellenbosch University

Grants and Contracts

  • 2018
    Role:
    Director, The Centre for Medical Ethics & Law
    Funding Source:
    National Research Foundation