A/Prof · Critical Care · University of Cape Town · Cape Town
David Thomson is a critical care subspecialist and abdominal transplant surgeon at Groote Schuur Hospital and the University of Cape Town. His interests are medical education and deceased donation system improvement. He created the massive open online course Organ Donation: From Death to Life and the 2-day in-person Excellence in Deceased Donation and End of Life Care course to improve education around organ donation and good end of life care. He is a past President of the Southern African Transplantation Society, and a current council member for both the International Society for Organ Donation Professionals and the Transplantation Society where he chairs the TTS Ethics Committee. He led development “Creating a National Strategic Roadmap for Organ and Tissue Donation in South Africa” in collaboration with the International Society for Organ Donation and Procurement. He worked on the World Brain Death Project and is the lead author on the South African Guidelines for Determination of Death published in 2021. He currently heads the Transplant Centre of Excellence project at Groote Schuur and Red Cross Children’s Hospitals in Cape Town.