Dr Andrew Good – M.B., Ch.B. (Stellenbosch) MBA (UCT)

Andrew is one of South Africa’s leading managed care experts. He has overseen the delivery of managed care to some of South Africa’s largest and best-known restricted schemes.

Andrew’s clinical background, analytical ability, industry insight and practical approach are invaluable in optimising healthcare strategy. Andrew has implemented and managed a broad spectrum of managed care programmes, including Disease Risk Management and HIV programmes for an array of different clients.

Andrew firmly believes that the abundance of clinical data, improved technology and system connectivity will radically change the way clinical risk is managed and member health improved. This will result in the managed care landscape changing considerably over the next few years.

Pierre Robertson – BSc Honours (RAU), MSc (Stellenbosch), MBL (UNISA)

Pierre is one of the leading health informatics specialists in South Africa.  He started his career in the scientific research arena and gained experience in marketing, quality management and as an industrial chemist in the manufacturing industry. This was followed by a short period in the market research arena where he gained his initial information technology exposure as a data engineer and operations manager in data mining technology and database management.

His career in the healthcare sector started in December 2000 when he joined Qualsa Healthcare (then called Clinical Management Solutions), the managed care arm of Metropolitan Health Group (MHG), as a health statistician. After building up a sophisticated managed healthcare reporting system over a period of 16 months, he was appointed to manage all data warehousing and decision support processes for the entire MHG in April 2003. In the three years that followed, he spent most of his time managing the development of service provider and member profiling and stratification models used as an integral part of day-to-day case management, provider network development and performance monitoring. Pierre also has extensive experience in the development of disease risk models and the development of information systems to support clinical outcomes reporting. Other achievements include the implementation of a clinical data mart suite linked to a Business Intelligence platform, a Geographical Information System (GIS) unit, a data quality measurement system and the creation of a data mining unit to primarily predict service provider fraud and predict disease risk.

During his employ at MHG Pierre served on various executive committees (Excos) in advisory positions as head of Decision Support Systems.  This includes two separate periods on the Qualsa Exco which was interrupted by a period on the MHG IT Exco.  He also served on separate scheme Excos during the past two years namely the Bankmed and Corporate scheme Excos.

Pierre currently fills the position of Director Informatics at Lifechoice.

Dr Craig Thompson - MBChB, MPhil in Sports Medicine

Craig matriculated at Livingstone High School in Cape Town in 1986. Besides having experience in the delivery of care in low-resource settings like the Industrial Bargaining Council of the clothing industry and the South African Defence Force, Craig has extensively consulted in the managed care industry since 2006. Managed care responsibilities undertaken during this period include:

• Providing medical advisory services to medical schemes.
• Training clinical staff.
• Developing and implementing clinical protocols.
• Using evidence-based medical principles to evaluate new and expensive medicines and health technologies.
• Providing medical advisory services to Qualsa’s PILIR programme (workplace incapacity and disability management programme).
• Assisting with the development and implementation of hospital, medicine and disease risk programmes.

Craig has a passion for sports medicine. Whilst doing his MPhil he researched the link between exercise and the diseases of lifestyle.

He is currently the contracted doctor of the Western Province Rugby team. Previous assignments include being team doctor for Bafana Bafana and Santos FC.s

Ms Farzanah Moola - MSc (Clinical Pharmacology)

Farzanah has been involved in managed care since being appointed as a Qualsa DUR pharmacist in 2001. She was soon promoted to Disease Risk Management (DRM) manager, and tasked with the development and implementation of DRM programmes and PMB programmes in the Qualsa Cape Town office. This required developing a fully functional unit in Cape Town to service all client schemes.

In addition to the responsibilities listed above, she was responsible for managing the delivery of managed care to two important client schemes. This involved overseeing and ensuring delivery of Qualsa's Hospital, Medicine, HIV, PMB and Disease Risk Management programmes within contractual service level agreements, reporting to the Board of Trustees, managing client relationships and managing an extensive staff complement.

Success as DRM Manager saw Farzanah promoted to Total Health Risk Management (THRM) executive and appointed to Qualsa's Executive Committee. This involved developing processes and models that incorporated and synergised medical scheme data with other employee programme outcomes. Farzanah was a key member of the team responsible of the successful bid for the Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA) contract for the management of their Incapacity and Ill-health Retirement (PILIR) programme for the Gauteng region. She subsequently also became the PILIR Executive. This included managing client relationships, the successful training of more than 8 000 Gauteng employees and managers, system planning and development, report template development, and setting up and building infrastructures in Gauteng and Cape Town to provide effective service.

Dr Sid Mobbs – MBChB M(Prax) Med

Sid started his career path as a student in actuarial science but then changed direction to study medicine. He followed his undergraduate training with a post-graduate degree in Family Medicine and spent the following 20 years in a private family medicine practice in Pietermaritzburg.

A move to Cape Town saw him enter the corporate healthcare sector where he spent the next 10 years developing a wide range of experience and expertise in the healthcare funding environment. In his position as Clinical Executive of Bankmed, he was responsible for all strategic input relating to clinical issues, as well as having oversight of all matters relating to the clinical/financial interface within a managed care context. In addition, he spent considerable time and effort promoting improved relationships between the providers and funders of healthcare with the ultimate aim of improved coordination and quality of care and its resultant clinical outcomes. His focus was also directed at the development of effective performance-based provider remuneration models that saw the provision of high-quality cost effective services more appropriately rewarded.

Sid has a strong belief in the importance of preventative care and the promotion of overall patient wellness and the role that this plays in future healthcare cost containment efforts. In partnership with his wife, he has recently developed a wellbeing programme aimed at encouraging patients to take responsibility for their own health in simple and easily attainable ways.

Sid continues to have a strong academic interest and still holds an appointment in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Cape Town where he tutors and examines the final year medical students on a part-time basis. In addition, he has recently been elected to the Faculty of the educational division of the Medical Protection Society where he presents educational modules to colleagues on topics such as Risk Management.