Health Without BordersEquity, Inclusion, and Sustainability
Dr Bessie Malila
Senior Lecturer, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering; Adjunct Lecturer, Division of Biomedical Engineering
University of Johannesburg
University of Cape Town
South Africa
Biography
Dr Malila is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, at the University of Johannesburg, and an Adjunct Lecturer in the Division of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Cape Town. She holds a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biomedical Engineering and a PhD and MSc in Telecommunications Engineering.
Her work develops and evaluates digital health interventions for rural, remote and underserved communities, with a particular focus on telemedicine and mHealth, and she leads the Telemedicine and Connected Care research group at UCT. She was invited to speak on the role of AI in global health at the World Health Summit in Berlin in October 2024. Her research spans digital health, telemedicine, mHealth and medical image analysis, AI, and 5G/6G research infrastructures; she supervises several master’s and doctoral students and collaborates with researchers internationally.
Research interests
- Developing and evaluating digital health interventions for rural, remote and underserved communities
- Telemedicine and mHealth service design
- Medical image analysis and AI
- 5G and 6G research infrastructures for digital health
Areas of expertise
- Digital health
- Telemedicine and mHealth
- Medical image analysis
- Artificial intelligence in health
- 5G/6G research infrastructures
Professional achievements
- Leads the Telemedicine and Connected Care research group, University of Cape Town
- Invited speaker on the role of AI in global health, World Health Summit, Berlin, October 2024
- Supervises several master’s and doctoral students and collaborates with researchers internationally
- Convenor of this masterclass