Welcome back to our Inspirational People in Healthcare blog series. Today we are absolutely delighted to feature Apryll Chase.

Apryll Chase is a Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist at St George’s Hospital in London and has a specialist interest in ambulatory and endoscopic gynaecology, with a focus on the evaluation, diagnosis and treatment of pre-malignant disease.

She studied medicine at Guy’s, King’s and St Thomas’ School of Medicine, KCL which she followed with extensive training at centres of excellence for Obstetrics and Gynaecological Surgery. She holds post-graduate qualifications in Clinical Leadership and in Academic Practice; has completed Fellowships in Ambulatory and Endoscopic Gynaecology, and in Management and Leadership in Education; including pursuing an MA in Academic Practice (Education).

Ms Chase is passionate about education, mentoring and widening participation in medicine and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. She has taught undergraduate students at leading medical schools throughout London, has been on a number of examination and assessment committees and developed courses and teaching materials for students and qualified doctors. She is an innovator in medical education having been involved in the creation and evaluation of e-learning tools, clinical simulations and video-based teaching resources which led to her receiving the Excellence in Education Innovation Award from the Simulation, Technology and Enhanced Learning Initiative of NHS London in 2010 and the Excellence in Contribution to Education Award from the School of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, HEE Kent, Surrey & Sussex in 2013.

She is well-respected in her field having served on several boards and advisory committees at the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, Health Education England and the Confederation of South London Lead Providers, to name a few. She is widely published in her speciality and in education, has delivered presentations worldwide and has not only received the awards previously mentioned, but her excellence as been recognised through prizes, scholarships and being awarded several leadership positions.

Ms Chase is also very active in her community having coordinated or participated in the following programmes:  Hands up for Health, Rise Leadership Academy, Access to Medicine Scheme (King’s College London), Annual CV Clinic (Bahamas), Guy’s, King’s and St. Thomas’ Mentoring Scheme and the National Respect Campaign.

Apryll Chase is a true inspiration having excelled both in her field of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, and in education. We wish her every success as she continues to have such a positive and significant impact in the field of medicine and on the next generation of doctors.

Welcome to our first ‘Inspirational People in Healthcare’ piece of 2018.

Today we are delighted to feature Dr Busayo Mobolaji-Lawal and Dr Tunrayo Mobolaji-Lawal, sisters who are still early in their medical careers but making a huge difference to their patients and community.

Dr Busayo Araoye (Nee Mobolaji-Lawal)

Dr Busayo Araoye obtained a BSc in Biological Science from the University of Ghana, studied medicine at the University of Ghana School of Medicine and Dentistry and is currently an Internal Medicine Resident at St Vincent’s Medical Centre in Connecticut.

While studying Busayo gained valuable experience as an Internal Medicine Exchange Student at Hospital Clinico Universitario Lozano Blesa in Spain and as a post-graduate intern in Internal Medicine at the St Nicholas Hospital in Nigeria.

Her desire to become an Internal Medicine doctor who serves not just her patients but her community as a whole was shaped during her clerkship. Of that experience she says:

“I encountered the most medically and socially complex patients. I gained exposure to patients from diverse cultural and financial backgrounds which helped me develop a sense of compassion, empathy and humility. It also broadened my perspective of health care accessibility and it awoke in me the urge to advocate for my patients and my community.”

She also has research experience having been an integral part of teams exploring: the quality of life of caregivers at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Ghana; the different types of cervical cancer diagnosed at the University College Hospital in Ibadan, Nigeria; stroke and cocaine use; and antibiotic resistance.

Her case presentation on antibiotic resistance was recognised at the American College of Physician’s regional conference in 2017 where she was a semi-finalist in their abstract presentation competition in Connecticut.

Through a range of voluntary work Dr Araoye has counselled communities on healthy lifestyle practices, engaged in free health screening and played an instrumental role during a cholera outbreak in Ghana. She was also an Electoral Member of the University of Ghana International Medical Students’ Association and a mentor to many being an inspirational and effective role model to young students with an interest in medicine.

We applaud Dr Araoye for the difference she has already made and look forward to seeing her continued success and future achievements as she progresses in her career.

Dr Tunrayo Mobolaji-Lawal

Dr Tunrayo Mobolaji-Lawal graduated Summa Cum Laude (with highest distinction) from the State University of New York at Stony Brook with a BSc. in Biochemistry in 2011. She then studied medicine at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine graduating in May 2017 and is currently an Emergency Medicine Resident at Yale New Haven Health.

In preparation for pursuing a career in Emergency Medicine Dr Mobolaji-Lawal held a number of shadowing and voluntary positions. As a sophomore in college she gained experience in the Emergency Department of Stony Brook University Medical Centre. This experience shaped her view of medicine and the type of doctor that she wanted to be, one who puts her patient’s first. Her third year clerkship was at the Cleveland Clinic Emergency Department, of that she said:

“Every hour brought in something new to the ED. The diversity of clinical encounters – unique patients with varying disease processes, range of illness severity and assortment of procedures – further attracted me to Emergency Medicine.”

Whilst performing chest compressions on a seriously ill patient as an Acting Intern at The Metro Health System Emergency Department  she realised that she was exactly where she wanted to be (involved in patient care and making a difference)and this solidified her passion for Emergency Medicine.

Dr Mobolaji-Lawal is also passionate about addressing health inequalities and ensuring that medically under-served communities are able to access healthcare services. To that end, through her voluntary work she has provided healthcare and screening services to deprived communities.

Throughout her academic life she excelled being awarded the SUNY’s Chancellor’s Award for Student Excellence, which recognises the integration of academic excellence with accomplishments in the areas of leadership, athletics, community service, creative and performing arts, campus involvement or career achievement. She was also awarded the Provost’s Award for Academic Excellence, an award given annually to a very select number of students who have shown true academic excellence, not just in the classroom but in research, creative activities or in building an academic community. Additionally she was awarded the Andrea Roher Scholarship which is awarded to an undergraduate student dedicated to the field of Health and Wellness. Finally Dr Mobolaji-Lawal was the recipient of the Bernadine P. Healy and Floyd D. Loops Scholarship and the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine Full Tuition Scholarship.

Additionally, Dr Mobolaji-Lawal was the president of the Minority Health Interest Group at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College, held a number of positions representing her Medical School and was involved in teaching and tutoring students.

We look forward to seeing Dr Mobolaji-Lawal excel as an Emergency Doctor and wish her every success with her career.

The late Professor Olikoye Ransome-Kuti was a world-renowned paediatrician, health campaigner and a prominent figure in global health for many decades.

Professor Ransome-Kuti was born in Nigeria and studied medicine at Trinity College in Dublin from 1948 – 1954. He returned to Nigeria to practice medicine after his studies and then in 1960 he travelled back to the UK to begin his postgraduate training in paediatrics.  After his postgraduate training he once again returned to the country of his birth becoming professor and head of the Department of Paediatrics at the University of Lagos; in 1978, he became their first professor of primary care.

In 1968 he set up an experimental family health clinic which led to the establishment of the Institute of Child Health and Primary Care at the College of Medicine at the University of Lagos. In 1976 he became the director of the National Basic Health Services Scheme Implementation Agency for Nigeria and was involved in a first attempt to set up a national health system for Nigeria.

While lecturing at the National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies, Professor Ransome-Kuti impressed Ibrahim Babangida and when Babangida came into power in 1985 he appointed Professor Ransome-Kuti as Nigeria’s health minister.  Professor Ransome-Kuti held this position from 1985 to 1992 and he has been described as the “best Minister of Health Nigeria ever had.”

During his tenure as the Minister of Health he made a significant difference to the healthcare landscape in Nigeria – national health policy was further developed and then implemented, relationships between sectors was strengthened and  healthcare coverage across Nigeria increased significantly. He also made a huge difference in tackling the stigma around HIV/AIDS and his efforts at fighting the emerging epidemic was described as “heroic.” He had a busy period as Health Minister with many other achievements including overseeing a successful anti-smoking campaign which led to manufacturers adding warnings to their products.

After leaving his cabinet position in 1992, he became the chairman of WHO’s Executive Board and in 1994 he was appointed chair of the World Bank’s Better Health for Africa Panel where he championed the idea of primary healthcare to other African countries producing a blueprint for all countries to follow.

Professor Ransome-Kuti received numerous awards including the WHO Leon Bernard Award in 1986, an award that recognises a person for outstanding service in the field of social medicine. In 1990 he won the UNICEF Maurice Pate Award in recognition of his work in improving the health and welfare of children. He published many medical papers and held numerous teaching positions including a visiting professorship  at Johns Hopkins University’s school of hygiene and public health in Baltimore.

He was an effective campaigner speaking out against corruption and defending democracy and the rights of poor Africans. Campaigning and fighting for those who didn’t have a voice was something he was passionate about and seemed to run in his family. His mother, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, was a women’s rights campaigner and was part of the team that negotiated Nigeria’s independence with the British. Whilst his brother was Fela Kuti the well-known musician, singer,  father of Afrobeat, human rights campaigner and political activist and his cousin Wole Soyinka is the Nobel Laureate, playwright, poet and political activist. 

Professor Ransome-Kuti was not only a brilliant man, but a nice person with his friends and colleagues describing him as a kind, caring, wise, gentle, humorous  and a direct individual. He was a family man and doting father being married to his wife Sonia Ransome-Kuti for 50 years and having three children – Dr Dotun Ransome-Kuti (Veterinary Doctor) , Dr Gboyega Ransome-Kuti (Medical Doctor) and  Bisoye Ransome-Kuti (Lawyer)

Professor Ransome-Kuti sadly died unexpectedly in 2003 from a pulmonary embolism whilst attending a WHO conference in London. He is greatly missed and his legacy lives on in Nigeria.

We took a break from our blog series, Inspirational People in Healthcare, but this week it is back! We’ll continue recognising people in healthcare who are making a significant difference in their field.

We hope you’ll enjoy reading this blog series and please do email us the details of anyone in healthcare who inspires you and we’ll include them in this series. Today we focus on Miss Samantha Tross.

Miss Samantha Tross is a Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon at Ealing Hospital in London with general orthopaedic experience and has a specialist interest in Lower Limb Arthroplasty.  Miss Tross is the first black female Orthopaedic Consultant Surgeon in the UK, specialising in minimally invasive surgery and is one of the women who make up the 5% of Orthopaedic Consultants Surgeons in the UK who are female.

As well as her clinical work she is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Medical Care Reports, an Examiner for Imperial College Medical School’s final examinations, Programme Director for Core Surgical Trainees at Ealing Hospital, Associate Professor of Orthopaedics at the American University of the Caribbean and an  Education Supervisor and mentor for young surgeons.

She is a member of both the Royal College of Surgeons of England and Scotland, and received her medical degree from the University College London.  She obtained her surgical training at a number of London teaching hospitals including St Georges Hospital, The Royal London and Guy’s & St Thomas’.

Miss Tross has been recognised in the JP Morgan Black Powerlist of 100 most influential Black Britons every year since 2011, was named in Tatler’s Doctor’s Guide in 2013 as one of Britain’s top 250 Consultants, has been featured in numerous publications and is the recipient of the 2016 Black British Business Image Award.

You can listen to Miss Tross talk about her average day as a surgeon in the video below and you can find out more about her work here

Nigerian-born doctor and scientist Dr Funmi Olopade is one of the world’s leading authorities on hereditary breast cancer and cancer risk assessment. She has a special interest in women of African descent, and her research into the genetic basis of breast cancer in young women of African ancestry has broadened our understanding of the interactions between genes, lifestyle and the environment in the development of breast cancer.

In October 2008, in recognition of her work, Dr Olopade was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and in February 2011, Dr Olopade was nominated by President Barack Obama for membership on the National Cancer Advisory Board.

Dr Olopade directs a multidisciplinary clinical and laboratory research program at the University of Chicago Medical Centre, is a haematology oncologist and the Walter L Palmer Distinguished Service Professor in Medicine and Human Genetics at the University of Chicago.

Dr Olopade has received numerous honours and awards, including honorary degrees from North Central, Dominican, Bowdoin, and Princeton universities. She is also a recipient of the Doris Duke Distinguished Clinical Scientist and Exceptional Mentor Award, an American Cancer Society Clinical Research Professorship, a MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Fellowship and Officer of the Order of the Niger Award.

Prof Frank Chinegwundoh is a Consultant Urological Surgeon.  He was appointed as a Consultant to Barts Health NHS Trust and Newham University Hospital NHS Trust in 1996.  He is a lecturer at  the University of London and in that capacity examines theses for doctoral degrees in urology.

He is an expert in the field of prostate cancer and is invited to speak at international meetings.  Prof Chinegwundoh published the first paper in the UK to show that black men in the UK have a three-fold excess risk of developing prostate cancer compared to white men.  He has authored numerous publications and book chapters.

Prof Chinegwundoh sits on the Department of Health Prostate Cancer Advisory Group, the Cancer Reform Strategy group, the National Cancer Equalities group and a working party on cancer survivorship.  He also sits on the Bowel Cancer Screening Advisory Group.  He is the spokesman for the Prostate Cancer Charter for Action.  Since 1998 he has chaired the Charity Cancer Black Care.  He is a Trustee of the Prostate Cancer Support Federation and was previously a trustee of Prostate Action.

Apart from expertise in prostate cancer therapies he is also able to employ a variety of technologies to deal with the enlarged benign prostate, for example TURP, TURIS, TUNA.

In 2008 he received a National Clinical Excellence Award and in 2013 was awarded an MBE for services to the NHS. In 2010 he graduated with a Master of Medical Law degree from Glasgow University.  In 2002 he was appointed a visiting Professor in Urology to the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital in Enugu.

Comfort Momoh is a  Female Genital Mutilation/Public Health Specialist at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust in London and  is the founder of the African Well Woman’s Clinic, a service that provides counselling, support, information and surgical reversal to women and girls who have undergone FGM.  

She was an advisor to the World Health Organisation, represented the UK at the UN Commission on the Status of Women in 2001, is the Chairperson for  Black Women’s Health and Family Sport,  is the vice-president of the European Network on FGM and is a member of the UK’s FGM National Clinical Group.

 In 2003, she was awarded the first ever nurse/midwife of the year award by Guy’s and St Thomas’ Foundation Trust , in 2014 she was the recipient of the Nigerian Centenary Awards’ 100 Outstanding Nigerians past and present who have lived in the UK over the past 100 years and in 2008 she was awarded an MBE for her services to women’s health.

[Photo credit: Top Forma]

In our new blog series, Inspirational People in Healthcare, we’ll be recognising people in healthcare who are making a significant difference in their field. We hope you’ll enjoy reading this blog series and please do email us the details of anyone in healthcare who inspires you and we’ll include them in this series. In this our first blog in the series, we focus on the Nigerian doctor Dr Bennet Omalu.

Dr Bennet Omalu is a Nigerian forensic pathologist based in the US. He was the first to identify, describe and name Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) in American football players in 2005. He has continued to conduct research in this area and discovered the same condition in war veterans.

Over the years Dr Omalu has tirelessly campaigned for further work to be carried out to protect football players from CTE and to raise awareness of this condition which causes those affected to suffer from memory loss, aggression, confusion and depression. He has testified twice before the US congress and took on the NFL who tried to discredit his work, but later in 2009 the NFL publically acknowledged the link between CTE and football.  In 2013 the NFL reached a settlement with 4500 former football players who stated that the NFL failed to properly educate them of the dangers of professional football.

Dr Omalu’s story was recently told in the 2015 film ‘Concussion‘ starring Will Smith and this led to the formation of the Bennet Omalu Foundation. You can view the trailer for Concussion below.

Dr Omalu has made a significant difference in this field and we salute him for his determination, integrity and bravery.