Sandra Kwarteng Owusu

Faculty Biography

Dr. Sandra Kwarteng Owusu is a Senior Lecturer, a Consultant Paediatrician and Paediatric Pulmonologist at the Department of Child Health, School of Medical Sciences, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Ghana. Sandra holds a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery (MB ChB) from the School of Medical Sciences, KNUST, and an MPhil in Paediatric Pulmonology from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Dr. Kwarteng Owusuis a fellow of the West Africa College of Physicians and the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons. She also holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Project Design and Management from the Liverpool School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, United Kingdom. Additionally, Sandra has a sub-specialty Certificate in Pediatric Pulmonology from the Colleges of Medicine South Africa and Certificates in Research Methods in Respiratory Health from the Pan African Thoracic Society.Her research focuses on improving lung health outcomes in children with pneumonia, asthma, tuberculosis and sickle cell disease.She has participated in several international and multi-center research projects. She was the Ghana site lead investigator for the Chronic Respiratory Disease Observatory for Africa study (CHEST AFRICA), and a Co-Investigator for the Achieving Control of Asthma in African Children (ACACIA) project and the follow-up study on Children’s Air Pollution Profiles in Africa (CAPPA), NHIR UK-funded research.Sandra established the first paediatric pulmonology service in Ghana at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH), Kumasi, Ghana, in 2019, and currently heads the Pediatric Pulmonology Unit at KATH. She has also established a paediatric respiratory disease research group that supports the running of the unit with updated data on the trends in the presentation of respiratory diseases at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital. She has been involved in mentoring and capacity-building for several health professionals in lung health in Ghana.Sandra is an Executive Member of the Pan-African Thoracic Society and the Vice President of the Ghana Thoracic Society. She is also a member of the European Respiratory and the American Thoracic Societies. Sandra is a PATS-MECOR alumna and is currently enrolled in the Women’s Leadership Program sponsored by PATS and ATS.Sandra plays an advisory role for the National Tuberculosis Programme in Ghana and has contributed to developing a national paediatric tuberculosis guideline. A strong advocate of lung health, Dr. Kwarteng Owusu also contributed to the development of the Ghana Thoracic Society’s National Asthma Guidelines for Ghana in 2023.In 2020, Sandra received the Robert Austrian Research Award by the International Society for Pneumonia and Pneumonia and Pneumococcal Disease (ISPPD-12). She has established a Network for Severe Pneumonia in Childhood Research in Ghana.Sandra serves as an External Examiner for the West Africa College of Physicians, West Africa Postgraduate Medical College and the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons. She has presented her research in several international and national conferences and workshops.