AKWI ASOMBANG, MD, MPH, FACG, FASGE
Dr Akwi W Asombang is an interventional gastroenterologist and Director of Global Health Programs in Gastroenterology at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School. She completed her advanced endoscopy fellowship at Beth Israel Deaconess Medicine Center (BIDMC), Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts. She completed her gastroenterology fellowship at Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, Missouri and a Fogarty International Clinical Research fellowship. Her Fogarty International-NIH sponsored research focused on gastric cancer in Zambia. Prior to her fellowships she completed a combined Internal Medicine/Pediatrics residency at Saint Louis University School of Medicine, St Louis, Missouri and her MPH at Saint Louis University School of Public Health. She is a graduate of Kasturba Medical College, Manipal, India. Her other professional interests are endoscopy, physician education/training and global health. Her travels around the world, upbringing, and interaction with various populations led her to form this organization to tackle the problems faced by most of the African communities. She strongly believes that as an individual we have a duty to one another, we each have the ability to change one life for the better and with this organization hopes to touch an infinite number of lives.
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GANIYAT OYELEKE, MD, FMCP, FACG, AdvPGDipHCHM
Dr. Ganiyat Kikelomo Oyeleke is a consultant physician, gastroenterologist and hepatologist at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idi-Araba, Lagos, Nigeria. A 1995 medical graduate of the prestigious University of Ilorin, Nigeria, she was awarded the Internal Medicine Fellowship of the National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria in 2009. Prior to joining the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) in 2015, she worked as a consultant physician and gastroenterologist at the General Hospital, Broad Street Lagos for 5 years. She has attended various local and international trainings, courses and conferences, and she has published in peer reviewed journals, given talks and presentations on the liver and gastrointestinal disorders at many local and international meetings. She is an examiner for the National Post Graduate Medical College of Nigeria. She is a fellow of the American College of Gastroenterology (ACG), a member of Society for Gastroenterology and Hepatology in Nigeria (SOGHIN), European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL), American College of Physician, American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE), and the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (AAHPM). She is actively involved in medical education at work and in her community. She is the coordinator of the World Gastroenterology Organization-Lagos Training Center, a co-director of the Lagos Viral Hepatitis ECHO (a branch of the Sub-Saharan Project ECHO), and an AAFG (African Association of Future Gastroenterologist) mentor. She is a loving wife and mother and loves to spend quality time with her larger family when not at work.
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PROFESSOR ADAMU SAMAILA, MBBS, FWACP
Adamu Alhaji Samaila graduated from Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Zaria with MBBS in 1993 and became a Fellow of the West African College of Physicians (WACP) in October 2002. He was appointed Lecturer in the Department of Medicine, Bayero University Kano (BUK) in December 2002 and rose through the ranks to become a Professor of Medicine in October 2015. He has been an honorary Consultant Gastroenterologist in the
Department of Medicine, Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital (AKTH) from December 20002 to date. He trained in Advanced Endoscopy training at the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa and the affiliate Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital (CHBH), Soweto, Johannesburg from November 2006 to November 2007.
He was the Head, Department of Medicine, BUK from May 2016 to May 2018 and was elected member representing the Senate on the Governing Council, BUK, for a second term of 4 years in January 2023.
His research areas of interest include gastrointestinal endoscopy, helicobacter Pylori infection, and functional gastrointestinal tract disorders.
Dr. Mizrahi is an accomplished gastroenterologist and researcher. He completed medical school at Bologna School of Medicine in Italy and internal medicine residency training at the Hadassah Medical Center in Israel- Hebrew university. He then went on to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center for his gastroenterology fellowship and advanced endoscopy fellowship.
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His experience includes serving as a professor of internal medicine at the Hadassah School of Medicine at Hebrew University in Israel and Director of Advanced Endoscopy Center and fellowship at the University of South Alabama in Mobile Alabama. Dr. Mizrahi is currently serving as the advanced endoscopy fellowship program director at Florida Center for Gastroenterology. He continues to publish in numerous peer-reviewed journals, medical reviews and case reports.
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Dr. Mizrahi provides comprehensive care of the gastrointestinal tract and liver. He performs routine endoscopy and colonoscopy, as well as advanced procedures including ERCP – cholangioscopy and loco-regional treatment for biliary and pancreatic malignancies, diagnostic and interventional EUS, EMR, ESD and third lumen endoscopy.
SANDIE R THOMSON, MBChB ChM FRCS (Eng&Ed) FRCP(Ed) MWGO
Sandie was born in North East Scotland, a location in the middle of great golf courses and the best non-triple distilled whisky in the world. At age 16, he enrolled at Aberdeen University, the oldest English-speaking medical school in the world, founded in 1495. He played snooker, golf and flew chipmunks, as he took up an RAF medical cadetship. He was awarded a distinction in Psychiatry, scraped through Surgery and married Margaret on graduation day on 12 July 1975. He has spent most of his time in exotic locations in the “Midlands of England” learning his general surgery trade in RAF Hospitals.
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By the age of 27 , he had passed his FRCS both north and south of the border. He left the RAF in 1981 as a Squadron Leader, and returned to his alma mater to do paediatric surgery and research. Surgical nutrition research at Harvard led to the award of his ChM in 1986. Unable to get a job in UK, he set off to the University of Natal, South Africa for a year and stayed. He started publishing in trauma and became interested in the use of rigid and flexible endoscopy. His current citation H-index is 26. He established the UKZN Surgical Gastroenterology Unit in 2006, and became involved in the surgical training and tele-education activities of the World Gastroenterology Organisation. After two decades in Durban, he was appointed to the Chair of Medical Gastroenterology in Cape Town. During this time, he became interested the theory and practice of training endoscopy in South Africa and Africa. This is now his retirement pastime.
SEGUN KOMOLAFE, MD
Segun Komolafe is a General & Colorectal Surgeon working at University Hospital Wishaw, just outside Glasgow, and is the former NHS Lanarkshire Clinical Lead for Colorectal Cancer. He studied Medicine at Glasgow University, graduating in 1999. Whilst at University, he also undertook an intercalated degree (BSc) in Parasitology. He then trained in general surgery in the west of Scotland, specialising in colorectal surgery. He gained further international training with a Laparoscopic fellowship at Barretos Cancer Hospital, Barretos / São Paulo, Brazil, before being appointed a Consultant in Wishaw in 2012. More recently, he completed further training in Robotic Surgery in 2021. His current practice includes Laparoscopic and Robotic Surgery for Benign and Malignant Colorectal Disease, as well as Emergency General Surgery. He also has an extensive endoscopic practice, participates in the Scottish Bowel Screening Programme, and routinely undertakes therapeutic endoscopic and colonoscopy procedures.
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Segun is an active member of the NHS Scotland Global Citizenship programme, and has helped with surgical courses and training in Brazil, Malawi and Nigeria. He is on the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh’s teaching faculty for the Non Technical Skill for Surgeons Course, with a particular interest in delivering NOTSS training in resource-limited clinical contexts. He is also a former College Tutor of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow. He is an Honorary Clinical Senior Lecturer at the University of Glasgow, and is Surgical Lead for Undergraduate Medical Students Teaching at UH Wishaw.
LANRE BALOGUN, MD
Consultant Surgeon, Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Nigeria
WALE ADISA, MD
Dr Adisa is a Consultant General Surgeon in the Department of Surgery, Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospitals Complex, Ile-Ife, Osun State, Nigeria. He is a Fellow of the West African College of Surgeons, the National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria and the American College of Surgeons. His special interests are in the field of Minimal Access Surgery and he has pioneered laparoscopic services in general surgery in Ile-Ife.
DR OLORUNDA ROTIMI, MSc, FRCPath
Dr Olorunda Rotimi is a fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists, a consultant GI and liver histopathologist at St James’s University Hospital, Leeds and an honorary senior lecturer at the University of Leeds, UK since 2002. He had his undergraduate medical education in Nigeria and postgraduate education in histopathology in Nigeria and the UK. He was the head of department of cellular and molecular pathology in Leeds (2016-19) and he is currently the clinical director for pathology at the Leeds Teaching Hospitals.
In addition to his diagnostic and teaching roles in Leeds, Dr Rotimi has a passion for capacity building in histopathology in Africa. Since 2006, he has facilitated several practice changing technical and diagnostic training workshops for pathologists and biomedical scientists in various countries of Africa including Nigeria, Ghana, Tanzania, Kenya, Egypt, Morocco and Uganda. He has also played host to several visiting fellows in histopathology in his department in Leeds. He is developing the use of digital slides for remote education to centres in Africa.
He is an examiner for the Royal College of Pathologists and has served as external examiner to the Nigerian National Postgraduate Medical College exams in pathology. He is the Country Advisor of Nigeria with the Royal College of Pathologists, UK. He is a member of several professional bodies and an active researcher in GI and digital pathology with several publications in international journals, many with African colleagues with whom he collaborates regularly.
MUKHTAR AHMAD, MD
Dr. Mukhtar Datti Ahmad is a Consultant Colorectal Surgeon and Lead Clinician for Colorectal Surgery at the University Hospitals Dorset, UK. His main clinical area of interest is robotic surgery for rectal cancer. He teaches minimal invasive surgery in the UK and Nigeria. He is passionate about safer surgery particularly in resource-challenged areas.
USMAN M. BELLO, MD
Consultant General and Laparoscopic Surgeon Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital/Senior Lecturer Bayero University Kano, Nigeria.
ABDU HAMISU DAMBATTA, MSc, FMCR, FWACS
Dr Abdu Hamisu Dambatta is a consultant radiologist at Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, Kano, Nigeria and associate professor, Bayero University, Kano.
He graduated from Bayero University, Kano in 2001. He is a fellow of National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria and West African College of Surgeons, Faculty of Radiology. He did his Masters in Anatomy in Bayero University, Kano in 2017. He is a general radiologist but has interest and pioneered paediatric radiology services in Aminu Kano Teaching hospital. He was a past president of the Society of Paediatric Imaging in Nigeria (SPIN) and current chairman of Association of Radiologist in Nigeria (ARIN) Kano state branch.
GARZALI IBRAHIM UMAR, MD
Dr Garzali Ibrahim Umar is a General Surgeon with special interest in Hepatobiliary and Transplant Surgery on the Department of Surgery of Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, Nigeria. He completed his advanced hepatobiliary and transplant surgery training in the Liver transplant Institute of Inonu University IN Turkey. He finished his General surgery residency training in Nigeria and was certified by the West African College of Surgeons. He is a graduate of the prestigious Bayero University Medical School. His main clinical interests are hepatic colorectal
metastasis and liver transplantation.
IBRAHIM ENEYE SULEIMAN, MBBS, FWACS, DMAS
Ibrahim Eneye Suleiman is a graduate of Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Zaria (2002), and a fellow of the West African College of Surgeons (2013). He earned a Diploma in Minimal Access Surgery from the World Laparoscopy Hospital Gurgaon, India in December 2013.
He had worked as a Consultant General Surgeon at Federal Medical Centre Nguru, Yobe Sate from 2012 to 2015, then he was appointed a Lecturer at the Bayero University Kano, and also an Honorary Consultant General and Laparoscopic surgeon at Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital Kano till date.
He served as a faculty member in General surgery at the John F Kenedy Memorial Hospital, Monrovia, Liberia from January to December 2021.
His special interests are in Laparoscopy and gastrointestinal surgery.
MARYAM ALFA-WALI, BSc (Hons) MFST MEd FRCS PhD
Dr Maryam Alfa-Wali is a Consultant Trauma and Colorectal Surgeon at St Mary's Major Trauma Centre part of Imperial Healthcare Trust in London. She is the first black female visceral trauma surgeon in the UK. An honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer at Imperial College London and Member of the Faculty of Surgical Trainers at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.
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Maryam has a PhD and a Masters in Surgical Education from Imperial College London with over 50 peer reviewed publications. Her research interests are early anal neoplasia, team training, recyclable materials in surgical education and health promotion strategies.
NAJAF SIDDIQI (MBBS, MRCS, M.D, FRCS)
Dr Najaf Siddiqi is a Consultant Colorectal, Laparoscopic, and Robotic Surgeon. He is a Surgical Tutor at the Royal College of Surgeon England, UK, and Clinical Audit Lead at University Hospitals Dorset, UK.
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His main interests are in the surgical treatment of bowel cancer and inflammatory bowel disease with a focus on advanced minimally invasive surgery, such as laparoscopic and robotic surgery. Dr Siddiqi is a passionate researcher and has a strong active research interest in surgical education, surgical technology, and quality in colorectal cancer. He has authored over thirty publications in various medical journals and has presented over sixty papers at different national and international scientific meetings. Dr Siddiqi was awarded a doctorate (M.D) research degree from the University of Portsmouth for his research on ‘Testing the Utility of Biomarkers in Detecting Micrometastasis in Colorectal Cancer’ and has active research interest in surgical education, surgical technology, and quality in colorectal cancer.
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Dr Siddiqi has been part of the faculty in various national and international masterclasses for laparoscopic and robotic surgery. Currently, he is a member of the faculty for various laparoscopic and robotic courses run by the Royal College of Surgeons, ASIT, and ASGBI for consultants and trainees.