Yaw Ampem Amoako

Faculty Biography

Dr. Yaw A. Amoako is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Medicine and Dentistry of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Senior Specialist Infectious Diseases Physician and Research Scientist at KCCR. He is the lead clinician for the KCCR network of clinics that provides care for the management of Buruli ulcer disease and other neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) in central Ghana. He has unique passion for research as evidenced by his involvement in several research projects. These have included him working as a principal or as a collaborator with several local and international researchers. Yaw has worked on multiple clinical trials including the WHO trial that led to the development of a full oral regimen for management of Buruli ulcer disease, BURULIRIFDACC and BURULINOX trials among others. His particular area of expertise is the clinical aspects of Buruli ulcer, Scabies and other infectious/ tropical diseases. His passion for team work has seen him collaborating with many local and international colleagues to research and publish in various areas of medicine.Yaw completed his first Fellowship training in Internal Medicine in 2013 from the West African Postgraduate Medical College. He had further training in South Africa at the Groote Schuur Hospital, Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital and the University of Cape Town. Yaw has several years of experience in the teaching and practice of internal medicine.  For over a decade, he has provided care to patients in several patient settings in Ghana as a specialist Physician; this includes a weekly cover as the Specialist on Duty in a tertiary hospital setting. During such calls, Yaw and his team are responsible for attending to a wide range of medical emergencies, taking calls and providing advice to other clinicians on medical emergencies in the middle belt of Ghana.One of Yaw’s greatest passions entails teaching and training of medical students and Physicians-in-training, -this he has done for several years. He has taught clinical medicine and has examined students in several medical schools in Ghana for nearly a decade. He is a key resource for postgraduate training of internal medicine residents/ trainee specialists at the Department of Medicine of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital. He has mentored and provided guidance for many colleagues during their membership and fellowship training with the West African College of Physicians and Ghana College of Physicians.Yaw has provided consultancy and technical advisory services for the govermental and non-governmental agencies both nationally and internationally. Such work has included consultancy for personnel training, field surveys and setting up and evaluation of National disease control programmes and providing training for prescribers within the Ghana Health Service in the detection and management of Hypertension. He was part of the expert panel that evaluated the Buruli Ulcer Control Programme for Ghana on behalf of the World Health Organisation and the Ministry of Health Ghana. More recently in October 2019, Yaw led a team of experts from KCCR to visit and investigate the scabies outbreak in the East Mamprusi Municipality of the North East region as part of a technical assistance to the Municipal Health Directorate. Yaw has written several expert reports for national and international agencies.Yaw is self-motivated, analytic, decisive, dedicated to duty, has good communication and interpersonal skills and is a team player.