Meet Juan
Research Fellow. Data Scientist. Educator.
Hello
About Juan

I am a Research Fellow at the School for Data Science and Computational Thinking at Stellenbosch University, a research project manager, data scientist, deep learning expert and lecturer. My research work supports many surgical trainees and master’s and doctoral candidates in the design and analysis of their research dissertations and I delight in managing these research teams as we forge ahead in this challenge to improve healthcare.
I believe that work around research, whether it be academic, state or private, is of fundamental importance to improve healthcare. My passion is to be involved in research team management, analysis of the data involved, and finding solutions to healthcare problems while educating my peers and colleagues about this important mission.
Online Courses
YouTube Lectures
Students
Trust
Achievements
For my work in the development of educational resources I was privileged to be recognised by the Open Education Consortiumas Educator of the Year in 2014.
Examples of my passion for training program development are my three successful courses on the world’s leading Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) platform, Coursera. My course on Understanding Healthcare Statistics is ranked No.1 in its category on Class Central, the definitive repository on Open Courseware and has been ranked in the top 50 of all courses in the world for the last three years.
In support of these three very successful examples, I have created four additional courses on the popular Udemy platform, training healthcare workers on a variety of statistical and mathematical software packages. In addition to this I have published more than 1,400 lectures on YouTube and most of my open-source code is available on the GitHub repository.
Winner of 2014 Open Education Consortium Educator of the Year
Class Central Top 50 Classes for 3 Years Running
Author of Statistics Using The Wolfram Language Textbook
14 Papers Published in Peer Reviewed Journals
Research Supervisor for 50+ Masters & Doctoral Degrees
Faculty Representative on Senate Committee of Online Education
Head of Acute Care Surgery
Journal Articles
Publications
If you have a healthcare related research question or proposal regarding research and the development of educational resources around these topics, then contact me via e-mail. I look forward to hearing from you.

Education
Qualifications
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Epidemiology: The Basic Science of Public Health – Coursera Course Certificates, Aug 2020
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Design and Interpretation of Clinical Trials – Coursera Course Certificates, Sep 2019
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Building Deep Learning Applications with Keras 2.0 – LinkedIn, Sep 2018
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Mathematica 11 Machine Learning – Lynda.com, Jul 2018
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Neural Networks and Deep Learning – Coursera, Jun 2018
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Mathematics for Machine Learning: Linear Algebra – Coursera, Mar 2018
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Meta-analysis for Data Science and Business Analytics – Lynda.com, Nov 2017
- Learning Microsoft Power BI Desktop – Lynda.com, Sep 2017
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SPSS Statistics Essential Training – LinkedIn, Feb 2017
- Mathematica 10 Advanced Analysis – Lynda.com, Dec 2016
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Up and Running with Mathematica 10 – lynda.com, Jun 2015
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The Neuroscience of Learning – lynda.com, Nov 2014
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Up and Running with Octave – lynda.com, Mar 2014
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Data Management for Clinical Research – Coursera, Oct 2013
- MMed(Surg)(UFS)Cum Laude – University of the Free State/Universiteit van die Vrystaat 1997 – 2002
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MBChB – University of Pretoria/Universiteit van Pretoria, 1988 – 1993
Research
Project Supervision
1. Predicting upper gastrointestinal rebleeding
2. The outcome of appendicitis in HIV and non HIV patients
3. The Modified Alvarado Score in acute appendicitis
4. Comorbid disease in acute care surgery
5. The technical experience of women trainees in general surgery
6. HIV in trauma
7. The impact of diabetes mellitus in acute care surgery
8. Pyogenic liver abscesses in a tertiary setting
9. The outcome of acute appendicitis in an acute care surgery setting
10. Surgical resources in South Africa
11. The use of an enduring in endoscopy
12. The outcome of patients managed by percutaneous cholecystectomy
13. The use of the tromboelastogram in trauma
14. Core needle biopsy and the outcome of suspected liver lesions
15. The outcome of emergency laparotomies in trauma
16. Audit of the final examination in General Surgery of the Colleges of Medicine of South Africa
17. Comparing endorectal surgery in an academic and a private unit
18. An analysis of breast milk mucins in HIV
19. Findings at intraoperarive cholangiography and its effect on outcome
20. The outcome of damage control laparotomies in an academic unit
21. The outcome of cases of necrotising fasciitis
22. Life expectancy after lower limb amputation
23. Gastric mucins in HIV
24. The outcome of surgical intervention for gastroesophageal disease in childhood
25. Trainee workloads in general surgery
26. Dysglycemia in a defined religious population
27. Short-term outcome of lower limb amputations
28. The use of opioids in postoperative care
29. Postoperative complications in acute care surgery
30. Breast clinic referrals in an academic community hospital
31. Outcomes of hernia surgery in an acute care surgery settings
32. Colorectal cancer survival in Cape Town
33. Outcome of acute care surgery in the elderly population
34. The outcome of Delorme procedure in an academic setting
35. An audit of femoral artery injuries in a trauma unit
36. The outcome of emergency oncological surgery
37. The management and outcome of minor burns
38. Perceptions and experiences of female general surgeons in training
39. The findings and outcome of second look laparotomies in acute care surgery
40. Salivary mucins in HIV
41. Morbidity and mortality in acute care surgery
42. Audit of the examination in Orthopaedic Surgery of the Colleges of Medicine of South Africa
43. The outcome of gunshot wounds to the abdomen in an academic trauma unit
44. The management and outcome of lobular carcinoma in situ
45. The outcome of upper gastrointestinal bleeding in an academic centre
46. The outcome of renal transplants in the Western Cape
47. Disease distribution patterns of peripheral vascular disease in the Western Cape
48. The effectiveness of arthroscopic knee surgery training simulation
49. Accuracy of the clinical evaluation of knee
50. Verification of a squat and smile scoring system in knee pathology
51. A knee osteoarthritis outcome score short form development
52. Verifying shoulder score tests in the local setting
53. The outcome of craniocervical junction fusion
54. A comparison of abscesses and tuberculosis of the spine
55. Validation of a video-assisted knee score