Improving emergency obstetric care.

Professor Bob Pattinson qualified as an obstetrician and gynecologist in Stellenbosch, South Africa, in 1985 and underwent further training in perinatal care in Oxford in 1987/88. He completed an MD on the use of Doppler ultrasound in high-risk pregnancies in 1992. In 1997 the MRC in South Africa awarded him the Maternal and Infant Health Care Strategies ResearchUnit. Currently, Professor Pattinson is also headof the department of obstetrics and gynecology at Kalafong Hospital, a regional teaching hospital in the University of Pretoria Health Sciences complex. He also serves on the National Committee for the Confidential Enquiries into Maternal Deaths and theNational PerinatalMorbidity andMortality Committee, and compiles and edits their SavingMothers reports. He is also responsible for the perinatal care (Saving Babies) and child health care (Saving Children) surveys in South Africa. His main research interests are in obstetrics, medical audits, health systems, and effective methods of outreach. His initial research work focused on developing and evaluating effective interventions, but now concentrates on developing effective methods of implementing interventions and effecting change. His current major research project is in integrating maternal and child health care and defining the key interactions that effect change.