Dineo Mpaya

Women in ICT and Science

Nominee's Province:
Gauteng

Project Name/Description:
Clinician Scientist

More info:

A specialist in nuclear medicine, Dr Dineo Mpaya intends to expose South Africans to evidence based information on topics related to cardiovascular diseases and cancer. Mpaya qualified as a specialist in nuclear medicine in 2018. While undergoing her specialisation training, she completed (cum laude) her master’s degree in nuclear medicine. “As part of my PhD dissertation, I trained in algorithms to predict death in patients with heart diseases. This enabled me to create a machine learning-based risk calculator to help doctors treat patients with heart conditions,” she says. At a seminar she attended as a medical student at the University of Cape Town, she was left spellbound. Mpaya recalls how “one of the nuclear physicians projected colourful images of the heart. I started reading more about nuclear medicine on the internet. The subject was too complex to understand, but I loved the fact that everything was centred around energy in motion. I was drawn to the concept since I love physics and have excelled in it since my primary school days.” Mpaya is positioning herself as a clinician-scientist. She has published more than 12 research articles in international journals. She supervises, among other things, doctors registered for a master’s degree at the University of the Witwatersrand.