Dr Herman Edeling

Dr Herman Edeling obtained his M.B.,B.Ch. Degree at the University of the Witwatersrand in 1975. In 1992 he qualified as a neurosurgeon with Fellowship of the College of Surgeons of South Africa. In 2009 he obtained the ABIME (American Board of Independent Medical Examiners) CIME (Certified Independent Medical Examiner) qualification. In 2016 he qualified as a DISAC (South African Dispute Settlement Accreditation Council) accredited mediator by completing the UCT/MiM Commercial and Health Sector Mediation training.

He practised as a GP in private practice for 10 years, and as a neurosurgeon in private surgical practice for 16 years. Since 2008 he has limited his practice to consulting and medico-legal neurosurgery.

He served SAMLA (South African Medico Legal Association) as director from 2005 to 2020, in various capacities as deputy chairperson, faculty principal, clinical negligence director and mediation director, and in 2020 was awarded honorary life membership. In SAMLA he led the development of a series of pioneering UCT-partnered postgraduate training courses in medico-legal practice; guidelines and protocols for medical mediation; clinical negligence mediation pilot projects with provincial departments of health; and the SAMLA-RAF personal injury mediation pilot project.

He has also served the HPCSA-RAF Appeal Tribunals as member and as chairperson; as well as the Association for the Protection of Road Accident Victims (APRAV) as chairperson of the Solutions Task Team Medical Committee.

He has co-authored three publications in peer reviewed journals on serious injury determination, the narrative test and the functioning of HPCSA appeal tribunals. He has written thousands of medico-legal reports and has testified in court as an expert witness in hundreds of matters.

He believes in the capacity of the mediation process to resolve conflict by harnessing the power of constructive self-determination of the parties to the dispute; and has contributed as a mediation trainer for SAMLA, UCT/MiM, ADR Network SA, Conflict Dynamics and Mediation Pan African, and has mediated more than 40 medico-legal disputes.