Prof. Derek Anamaale Tuoyire is a public health scholar whose research and policy advocacy efforts pivot around sexual and reproductive health, non-communicable diseases and other germane population health outcomes. He is an Associate Professor and the current Head of the Department of Community Medicine. Prior to this role, he served a four-year term as Coordinator for the School of Medical Sciences' flagship Community-Based Experience and Service (COBES) programme, aimed at training community-oriented, people-centered and research conscious medical professionals through community engagement and social innovations for health in underserved communities in Ghana.
Prof. Tuoyire has extensive experience in designing and implementing primary research projects using varied qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-methods techniques. He is equally adept at conducting secondary analyses of large datasets particularly Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) and Multi-Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) datasets. A few of his previous and ongoing projects include exploring the delivery of comprehensive sexuality education to young people living with HIV and young people in detention in Ghana, HIV status and knowledge related to cervical cancer among women in Ghana, association between breastfeeding duration and obesity among women in Ghana, and gender and marital status disparities in hypertension in Ghana. Additionally, he has been involved in interdisciplinary projects exploring the impact of COVID-19-related death/burial protocols on traditional burial/funeral rites in Ghana, and the extent to which ethnocentric tendencies influence preference for African-made vaccines. He is currently in the process of concluding a study investigating snakebite envenomation, lived experiences and treatment trajectories in communities fringing the Kakum Forest Conservation Area of Ghana.
He teaches and mentors students based on both the spiral-integrated modular curriculum of the School of Medical Sciences and the traditional course-based university curriculum. He employs a problem-based learning approach in the teaching of modules/courses – Introduction to Research Methods, Essentials of Public Health, Applied Epidemiology, Global Environmental Changes and Health, Sexual and Reproductive Health Policies, Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health, Health Demography, Aging and Impairment in the Community among others. Student appraisal reports on him are often impressive, reflecting the impact of teaching philosophy and pedagogical approaches on student learning. He continually mentors students, including visiting international students. He is currently serving as a global health mentor for a medical student from Yale School of Medicine and another from University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) on a collaborative project which seeks to explore health professional student-led interventions to address gaps in common non-communicable disease screening, management and self-care education in Ghana.
Prof. Tuoyire’s commitment to translating academic scholarship into effective policy options for social transformation and improved population health is reflected in his community engagement and advisory work for various organizations. Notably, he was part of the team of consultants tasked by the Ghana Health Service and UNFPA to develop and subsequently evaluate the Ghana Obstetric Fistula Prevention and Management Strategic Plan (2017-2021).
In his quest to expand and disseminate knowledge through scientific studies, he has published several papers in scientific journals of global repute, and presented his work at both local and international conferences.