 Dr Anna Hall is based in the Northern Suburbs of Cape Town, where she works with a senior cardiac surgeon as his fulltime theatre assistant. This surgeon’s practice alone handles up to 40% of all the open heart surgery done at the unit, and is often called upon to manage the more complex problems.
She first qualified as a social worker. After three years working in psychiatric social work and crisis intervention, she returned to UCT to study medicine. She graduated in 1978 with first-class honours and several gold medals, and spent the next year doing internships in general medicine and surgery. The next eighteen months were spent in the animal lab, where she was involved - amongst other projects - in the early stages of establishing liver transplant techniques.
After a break to raise her two children, she returned in 1987 to combine general practice with theatre assisting, helping with surgery in all disciplines, but soon switched to full-time theatre work. In 1996 she joined a large cardiac unit, where she still practices, doing cardiothoracic work exclusively.
Apart from cardiac surgery, Dr Hall has an interest in patient education in general, and a special interest in lifestyle management related to heart problems.
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