Cardiologist
Dr Msimelelo M. Mgidlana
Born in Mthatha to a professional nurse and small business owner; Dr Mgidlana completed high school here before moving to Cape Town to read for a Bachelor of Surgery and Medicine (MB ChB) degree at the University of Cape Town (UCT). Having completed his internship and mandatory community service at the East London Hospital Complex (ELHC) and Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital (NMAH) respectively, he returned to Cape Town as a senior house officer and later took up a training post as a registrar in the Department of Medicine. In his final year of training he held the position of deputy chief registrar of the medical registrar programme. After passing his specialist exams in 2019 he was admitted as a Fellow to the College of Physicians (FCP) under the Colleges of Medicine of South Africa (CMSA). In 2020 he completed his Masters degree in Medicine (MMed); later that year he would be employed by UCT as a junior lecturer and MBChB VI course convenor. Here, the COVID-19 pandemic offered him an opportunity to be instrumental in the design and implementation of an online eLearning platform for undergraduate students.
In the 2021, he enrolled as a fellow in the division of cardiology and successfully sat for the CMSA certificate in cardiology exam in 2023; qualifying as a cardiologist. True to his leadership abilities; that year also saw him appointed the chief registrar of the cardiology training programme.
Currently enrolled as a fellow in the Cardiac Electrophysiology (EP) and Pacing training programme and completing a Masters degree in Philosophy (MPhil); he returns to his roots as a cardiologist at Herolim Private Hospital, the only private hospital with a catheterization laboratory (Cath Lab) in a radius of 200km and indeed the entire former Transkei.
Passionate about the delivery of world class cardiovascular medicine to a region previously under served in this discipline of medicine, he hopes to be a catalyst for change.