Bessie Malila

Dr. Bessie Malila is the research lead of the Telemedicine and Connected Care research group in the Division of Biomedical Engineering division within the Department of Human Biology at the University of Cape Town (UCT). She has several years’ experience in Telecommunications industry and did her postgraduate studies in Mobile Communications Systems Engineering, including a postdoctoral fellowship in Biomedical Engineering focusing; her research on digital health technologies, with an emphasis on Telemedicine, mHealth, and medical image analysis. Her current projects include implementation of a 5G/6G test network infrastructure for validation of novel Digital Health applications, including virtual clinic systems for rural, remote and underserved communities. She utilises the concepts of user-centred design, solution co-creation and Implementation Science in her research approach. Dr. Malila is a recipient of several research grants, including the African Academy of Sciences ARISE research grant for South Africa. She is a member of the South Africa 5G Forum, the Telkom South Africa Centres of Excellence Executive Committee at UCT, and is a Senior member of the IEEE. Dr Malila has multidisciplinary qualifications, holding a PhD in Telecommunications Engineering and postdoctoral training in Biomedical Engineering.