Understanding a new cancer treatment that uses the immune system: a simplified version

Have you ever called the police to intervene in persistent armed robberies in your neighbourhood? Have you ever reported suspicious strangers in your neighbours to the police? Have you ever witnessed arrival of reinforcement to help deal with a serious security threat? If you have ever, then there is a new cancer drug that uses …

Is there room for faecal transplant in healthcare in Ghana?

In a research article titled, Duodenal Infusion of Donor Feces for Recurrent Clostridium difficile, which was published in the New England Journal of Medicine, faeces from healthy donors were used to successfully treat research participants with recurrent infection in a clinical trial. A clinical trial is a kind of experiment that is conducted to compare, …

Artificial Intelligence, Healthcare, and Ethics in Ghana

In less than six months after graduating from medical school, the teaching hospital–where I was trained–started transitioning to a paperless hospital system. Nearly all forms of documentation became electronic. Though the transition encountered some resistance, it was successfully implemented. Patients no longer had to queue for long hours to retrieve their folders before getting to …

‘COME AND SEE A PREGNANT CRIPPLE’: women with disabilities and the barriers to maternal healthcare in Ghana

“For people like us we need special care during pregnancy to ensure safe delivery. I try to go for antenatal care, and I believe every pregnant woman needs it.”1 Anonymous woman with disability Disability is a physical, cognitive/mental, emotional, sensory, or developmental impairment, or a combination of any of these impairments, which negatively affect a …

[BOOK REVIEW] Anatomic and Surgical Pathology Practice: A Clinician’s Guide, by Dr Kafui P. Akakpo. Icon Publishing Ltd., Accra, 2022, 379 pp., ISBN 978-9988-3-30385

Summary: Pathology practice is essential to patient-centered and evidence-based healthcare. In its truest sense, pathology practice–hospital autopsy, forensic autopsy, surgical pathology, and cytopathology–is relatively underappreciated amongst medical students and clinicians in Ghana. A 379-page book, Anatomic and Surgical Pathology Practice: A Clinician’s Guide, recently published by Dr Kafui P. Akakpo, a consultant pathologist and fellow …

THREE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS IN LIFE: the dearth of humanity

"Nimdeɛ firi obi ano." "Knowledge (or understanding) are from someone's mouth." Akan proverb Photo credit: Google images University of Cape Coast School of Medical Sciences is a Ghanaian medical school whose central pedagogy is problem-based learning approach, with a special interest in public health, mental health, ethical health care practice, and teamwork. From second year, …

Winding Feet of Giants

Sketched on the bark of baobab trees Are the winding feet of giants It takes more than an arm To wrap around their magnificence But one drop after another Water and wine welcome newborns Toe to heel; and thumb to index finger The rot and lot of giants, patiently trace History is your story Deep …

BEHIND THE SCENES OF A GHANAIAN PHYSICIAN’S DAY

“Jesus asked, ‘Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine?’” –St. Luke 17:17 “The greatest dishonor is ingratitude.” –Pam Malow-Isham When I was growing up, I always wondered why physicians would not pay for the bills of very ill patients who badly needed financial support, such that the patients had to resort to …

COVID-19 DIARIES: When The Spread Of Stigma Competes With The Spread Of The Virus

“For every single written page, there are always one thousand pages that should be read.” – Olga Tokarczuk One of my favourite patient’s was a gentleman who was diagnosed of HIV, tuberculosis and hepatitis B virus infection. After weeks of caring for this gentleman, I had to bid him farewell so that he could continue …

COVID-19 DIARIES: Beautifully Serving In A Dangerous Zone

"Where did this feeling come from? Medical school. Part of the curriculum, no less essential than anatomy and physiology, was the teaching that physicians do not turn away from human suffering. Others may avoid the sickly smell of bloody stool, the sight of a festering wound, the sounds of a grieving parent's wail - but …