Robert Pattinson

 Professor Bob Pattinson is the director of the SAMRC/University of Pretoria Maternal and Infant Health Care Strategies Research Unit and clinical head of the department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Pretoria. His is also co-director to the University of Pretoria’s Research Centre for Maternal, Fetal, Newborn and Child Health. He serves on the National Committee for the Confidential Enquiries into Maternal Deaths and the National Perinatal Morbidity and Mortality Committee, and the National Perinatal Morbidity and Mortality Committee in South Africa. He is responsible for the perinatal care and child health care surveys in South Africa and developed the databases for these qualities of care surveys in maternal, newborn and child health. These have now been adopted by the National Department of Health as the national standard and incorporated in their data systems. His main research interests are in obstetrics, medical audits, health systems, effective methods of outreach and developing innovative methods of preventing stillbirths. His main research foci are on determining the most effective means of implementing new health care strategies e.g. emergency obstetric care, improving current programmes e.g. improving basic antenatal care and developing a continuous wave Doppler apparatus to screen for foetuses at risk of stillbirth. He was awarded the Havenga Medal for original research in the natural sciences by the Suid Afrikaanse Akademie for Wetenskap en Kuns in 2016, and Discover Foundation award for excellence in medical research in 2017.