Biographies | Ghana College of Physicians & Surgeons

Biographies

President: Professor Dr. Dr. Sir George Wireko Brobby
Rector: Professor David Ofori-Adjei

George Wireko Brobby

George Wireko Brobby succeeded Professor Samuel Ofosu-Amaah as the 2nd President of the College.

He attended St. Augustine’s College before enrolling at the University of Marburg in West Germany, where he was granted a special permission to study Medicine and Dentistry simultaneously, on Ghana government scholarship. He graduated with MB/ChB in June 1971 and BDS in 1972 and followed this up with a double doctoral dissertation in 1972 and 1973 with a magna cum laude in both Medicine and Dentistry. Prof. Dr. Dr. Brobby obtained his Fellowship in Ear, Nose and Throat, Head and Neck Surgery in 1977 at the University of Dusseldorf, West Germany. He was elected Fellow of the West African College of Surgeons in 1985 and honoured with the Fellowship of the New York Academy of Sciences in 1992. He became a Foundation Fellow of the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons and was elected Vice Rector for two consecutive terms by his peers.

Sir George has served as President of the Ghana Medical Association (1995 – 1997), Ghana Surgical Research Society (1996 – 1998), Initiative for Deaf Education in the Third World (1996 – 2000), Pan African Federation of Otorhinolaryngological Societies (2000– 2004), and was appointed WHO consultant on Prevention of Deafness and Hearing Impairment in 1996. He was the Foundation Chairman and Chief Examiner of ORL West African College of Surgeons from 1997 – 2001. In June 2000, he was appointed by the Ministry of Health as the Chairman of the task force responsible for the establishment of the Ghana National Postgraduate Medical College.

Professor Brobby has published extensively (49 papers) in reputable international journals and has written chapters to two student textbooks in ENT and one in Surgery in the tropics.

As the longest serving Dean (1992 – 2002) of the School of Medical Sciences, and in recognition of his incisive role for the training of postgraduate doctors at SMS, the KNUST University Council honoured him with a Doctor of Science degree (honoris causa) in February 2010.

Among his greatest achievements is the establishment of the Kumasi Hearing Assessment Centre, through the magnificent generosity of the Commonwealth Society for the Deaf at KATH, the only centre recognized by WHO as a collaborative centre in the whole of the sub-region; and The Kumasi Collaborative Centre for Research into Tropical Medicine (KCCR) affiliated with the Tropical Institute of Hamburg, Germany.

Professor Brobby was knighted by His Holiness Pope John Paul II with Knighthood of St. Gregory the Great Pope in 2000 and was honoured with the Order of the Volta – Companion Division by the President of the Republic of Ghana at the National Awards celebration of 2007.

David Ofori-Adjei

Dr David Ofori-Adjei succeeded Professor Paul Kwame Nyame to become to College’s 2nd Rector.

He is Professor of Tropical Clinical Pharmacology; and Medicine and Therapeutics at the Centre for Tropical Clinical Pharmacology, University of Ghana Medical School. He is a former Director of Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research at the University of Ghana, Legon. Until his appointment by the Council of the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons as Rector, he was the Acting Rector, and prior to that, Vice Rector of the College. He is a Fellow of the West African College of Physicians, Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, Fellow of the Ghana College of Physicians and a Fellow of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Dr David Ofori-Adjei graduated in 1975 from the University of Ghana Medical School after attending Mfantsipim School, Cape Coast, Ghana. He joined the University of Ghana Medical School as a lecturer in medicine and therapeutics in 1982. Since then he has spent his entire carrier life in Ghana extending the frontiers of knowledge and contributing to academic as well as national and international health development. He has taught undergraduates and postgraduates in medicine, done research and offered considerable service always seeing things in a broad national and international perspective. The focus of his research career has been on clinical pharmacology, pharmacogenetics, infectious diseases (particularly malaria, schistosomiasis, Buruli ulcer and HIV/AIDS) and public sector pharmaceutical management.

He has contributed immensely to the development of Clinical Pharmacology in the University of Ghana Medical School and supported the growth of the Centre for Tropical Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, famous for its work on the promotion of rational use of medicines and pharmacovigilance. He was elected to the Council of the Division of Clinical Pharmacology of the IUPHAR (International Union of Pharmacology and Clinical Pharmacology) in the year 2000 and served on Council until 2006. In the initial stages of the West African College of Physicians he supervised the work of the first two Ghanaian candidates to acquire the Fellowship diploma by examination.

Professor Ofori-Adjei has worked in diverse ways to support the national effort to control malaria. This he has done by working seamlessly with the national malaria control programme in Ghana, the WHO and the Roll Back Malaria Initiative. In 1995 his contribution to malaria control was recognised by the Ministry of Health with an award.

Professor Ofori-Adjei was instrumental in the introduction of the concepts of Essential Drugs and the Rational Use of Drugs in Ghana and the development of the National Essential Drugs List with Therapeutic Guidelines since the late 1980s. He also promoted the development of evidence-based treatment guidelines from which Ghana derives its list of Essential Medicines. He helped found the International Network for the Rational Use of Drugs (INRUD) of which he continues to be a very active member. He has successfully drawn to this network a group of young Ghanaian physicians, pharmacists and social scientists who are all contributing in no small way to the advancement of the quality use of medicines.

He has made his expertise available to international bodies like UNICEF, the World Health Organisation as a member of a number of Expert Groups or Panels and the United States Pharmacopoeia Convention as a member-at-large and also on the International Health Advisory Panel for a period of ten years. He currently serves on the Developing Country Coordinating Committee of the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership as a representative of WAHO, The Scientific Coordinating Committee of AMANET, the expert advisory group on Affordable Medicines Facility-malaria of the Global Fund and the International Advisory Group of Medicines Transparency Alliance (MeTA).

Professor Ofori-Adjei is an advocate of effective dissemination and utilisation of research findings. Currently he is the Editor-in-Chief of the Ghana Medical Journal and serves on the Editorial Committee of the Lancet Infectious Diseases and the Global Public Health journal. He has also been a Director of the World Association of Medical Editors and a member of the Council of Science Editors. He is also involved in an initiative that seeks to improve the quality of African medical journals through the Forum of African Medical Editors (FAME) and the African Journals Partnership Project.