Dr. Tom Heller Specialist Internal Medicine, Infectious Disease

Clinical Advisor

As the Clinical Advisor, Dr. Tom Heller strives to improve the quality of the integrated care at Lighthouse, develop capacity within the clinic staff and also to use the clinic’s experiences of innovative practices to assist the Ministry of Health to inform national policy with regards to all aspects HIV management.

Dr. Tom Heller, born 1969, graduated from the Medical School of the Technical University Munich, Germany in 1995. He has worked in various international settings in the field of Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases for more than 20 years. In the field of HIV and (MDR-) tuberculosis he gained extensive experience while working in Hlabisa, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. He is a dedicated clinician, experienced trainer and clinical mentor. Since the beginning of his career his particular interest has been lying in diagnostic and interventional ultrasound.

His research and teaching interests are ultrasound applications in the resource-limited setting and sonographic diagnosis and treatment of infectious diseases. He developed a protocol called (FASH) Focused assessment with Sonography for HIV/TB. This protocol focuses on using ultrasound to diagnose HIV-associated tuberculosis. Tom has also taught ultrasound in various countries in Africa, Asia and South America.