Mrs. Shirra Moch

Shirra Moch is a South African health sciences scholar affiliated with the University of the Witwatersrand. Her work spans medical education, health professions training, and health services research, with a strong grounding in qualitative inquiry and phenomenography. She has contributed to advancing conceptual understandings of learning, institutional culture, and access within resource-constrained and socially complex contexts.

A central focus of her research is educational transformation in the health professions. She has introduced and theorised “symbolic access” in medical education, highlighting sociocultural inclusion and its impact on learning. Her scholarship explores clinical immersion, interprofessional education in student-run clinics, faculty development, and visual literacy in pathology training, demonstrating a commitment to reflective, context-responsive pedagogy.

In parallel, her earlier and collaborative work addresses pharmacoeconomics, medicine use, antimicrobial stewardship, chronic disease management, and equity in cancer care across public and private sectors. This body of work reflects strengths in health systems analysis and patient-centred research, contributing to debates on equitable access, cost, and quality of care in South Africa.