Dr Harold Ayetey, MB BChir, PhD, FRCP; earned his medical (MB), surgical (BChir) and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degrees from the University of Cambridge and holds the Fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians in London. He initially trained in Internal Medicine in various London and Oxford area Teaching Hospitals such as St Barts, The London Chest, The Royal London and Milton Keynes Hospitals, before returning to Cambridge as a Wellcome Trust Clinical Training Fellow and Specialty Registrar in Cardiology to undertake clinical training and PhD level research in Cardiovascular and molecular Medicine. His PhD thesis and publications made important contributions to our understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying genetic cardiomyopathies such as arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy. Dr Ayetey subsequently completed a sub-specialty Fellowship in Advanced Cardiac Imaging at the Royal Brompton Hospital in the UK and has since established the Advanced Cardiac Imaging sub-specialty in Ghana and the sub-region.
He works primarily as a clinical academic with main activities in clinical practice in Internal and Cardiovascular Medicine as well as clinical and basic science teaching & research. while maintaining his scientific interests in molecular cardiology and Stem cell Biology particularly the use of stem cell biology as a tool for in vitro modelling of genetic cardiomyopathies. His background in molecular medicine and expertise in advanced cardiac imaging (Echocardiography, Cardiac MRI, Cardiac CT) compliments this. He is a former Head of both the Department of Internal Medicine and Therapeutics at the University of Cape coast and the Department of Medicine at the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital. During his tenure, he led the establishment of the Internal Medicine specialist training program in Cape Coast, the first in the country outside Accra and Kumasi in collaboration with the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons.
Dr Ayetey continues to contribute to the academic life of the university and the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital, and to medicine nationally. He is the Chairman of the 5-Year Strategic Committee of the Ghanaian Society of Cardiology looking to modernise Cardiology practice and training nationally and a Member of the Technical Advisory Committee on the Safety of Medicines at the Food and Drugs Authority of Ghana where he also served as cardiologist to the national COVID-19 Vaccines safety committee. Internationally, he is a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Noninvasive Cardiology Protocols Survey on the Impact of COVID-19 on Cardiovascular Diagnostic Testing Practices and Working Conditions amongst others. He continues to publish actively in Internal Medicine, General Cardiology and Advanced Cardiac Imaging in high impact journals.
He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (London), the Royal Society of Medicine (UK), the Ghanaian Society of Cardiologists and a member of the European Society of Cardiology and European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging.
Disciplines
- Internal Medicine
- Cardiology
- Molecular Medicine/Cardiology
Skills and expertise
- Internal Medicine
- Cardiology
- Advanced Cardiac Imaging - Echo, CT, MRI
- Stem Cell Biology, Molecular Biology, Genetics