Bridging the gap

The interface between the clinician and the laboratory is critical in ensuring appropriate specimen collection, and appropriate processing. In this, our first episode of Microbe Mail, the host of Microbe Mail, Vindana Chibabhai, chats to a Microbiologist and an infectious diseases fellow about the laboratory cycle and how we can bridge the gap between the bench and the bedside in the diagnosis of infections.

Spotlight feature: 21:30 (Microbe True or False)

Guests: Dr Kessendri Reddy and Dr Lyle Murray

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Dr Kessendri Reddy is a microbiologist working at the National Health Laboratory Services Tygerberg/Stellenbosch University, in Cape Town, South Africa. She completed her MBChB in 2008 at the University of KwaZulu Natal, qualified as a clinical microbiologist in 2017 and graduated with an MSc in Clinical Epidemiology in 2020. While she is enthusiastic about almost all aspects of her discipline, her special interests lie in “knowledge translation” and practical application from the laboratory to the clinical environment, teaching and training of healthcare workers on specific aspects of the discipline, and involvement in research activities. She believes that clinical microbiologists have a major role to play in low and middle income countries where infectious diseases exert a substantial burden on the healthcare system.

Dr Lyle Murray is a specialist physician and a Fellow in Infectious Diseases at Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital and Wits University. He completed his MBChB at the University of Cape Town, his MMed at Wits University and his DPhil at the University of Oxford. He has interests in the immunology of infectious diseases including HIV, TB and COVID-19. He believes that the communication between clinician and microbiologist is key to improving the use and interpretation of microbiological investigations.