My name is Dr. Gérard Filies, and I am a registered Occupational Therapist by profession with a B.Sc. (Occupational Therapy) degree from the University of the Western Cape. I also have an M.Phil. (Health Sciences Education) Master’s degree from Stellenbosch University and obtained a PhD degree from the University of the Western Cape (UWC). My wife, Dr Sylnita Swartz-Filies, and I made history at UWC in 2018 by being the first married couple to both graduate with PhD degrees in the same ceremony. We were acknowledged by the Occupational Therapy Association of South Africa as the first married Occupational Therapy couple to achieve this accolade in the Western Cape. In 2019 we received the platinum award for the most inspirational couple from the I Do Magazine annual award ceremony in Johannesburg. The title of my PhD study was: Development of an interprofessional education model that aims to instill the core competencies of interprofessional collaborative practice in allied health students’ curriculum.
At UWC, I am employed as a full time senior lecturer within the Interprofessional Education Unit (IPEU) in the Faculty of Community & Health Sciences. Responsibilities include: curriculum development, lectures, research, facilitation of faculty development workshops, co-ordination of interprofessional activities with postgraduate and undergraduate students, interprofessional supervision of students; and development of community sites for interprofessional placement of students for fieldwork. Research areas of interest include: Interprofessional Education, Service-Learning, Health Promotion, Primary Health Care and Community-Based Education. His current research project includes the use of 3D printing in interprofessional education and collaborative practice. Current teaching responsibilities at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels are: Primary Health Care, Interdisciplinary Health Promotion, Interprofessional Education World Café workshops, Interprofessional Ethics and Shared Research Methods. I am part of a team and was appointed as convenor for driving the process for registration and accreditation of the Postgraduate Diploma in Interprofessional Education and Health – a first of its kind in the Western Cape, if not a first in South Africa. The programme is currently being planned for implementation in August 2021.
I have been invited by the Universities of Missouri and Winston Salem State University in the United States of America to develop their Interprofessional Education curriculum in 2018 and 2019. I was also invited to the Nelson Mandela University in 2019 as a guest speaker for interprofessional education and has facilitated a webinar series on interprofessional education and collaborative practice between 2019 and 2020 as part of capacity development for faculty members. I also served as the secretariat of the African Interprofessional Network (AfrIPEN) from 2017 to 2018 and is a member of Interprofessional Research.Global (IPR.Global).
Contact Dr. Gérard Filies: gfilies@uwc.ac.za
Interprofessional Research.Global Scholar Spotlight is a regular feature that highlights member research in Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice.
