Emmy Okello is a

Uganda Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the ...

n consultant

physician A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...

who has specialized as an interventional

cardiologist Cardiology () is the study of the heart. Cardiology is a branch of medicine that deals with disorders of the heart and the cardiovascular system. The field includes medical diagnosis and treatment of congenital heart defects, coronary artery di ...

and

researcher Research is creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge. It involves the collection, organization, and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular attentiveness to ...

. He serves as the Head of the Cardiac Catheterization Department at

Uganda Heart Institute Uganda Heart Institute (UHI) is a specialized, public, tertiary care medical facility owned by the Uganda Ministry of Health. It is a component of Mulago National Referral Hospital, the largest hospital in Uganda, which serves as the teaching hos ...

, the government institution in Kampala that specializes in the treatment of congenital and acquired cardiac disorders. Okello has special interest in

rheumatic heart disease Valvular heart disease is any cardiovascular disease process involving one or more of the four valves of the heart (the aortic and mitral valves on the left side of heart and the pulmonic and tricuspid valves on the right side of heart). The ...

(RHD), and is one of the recognized leaders in this area of cardiology in the region.

Background and education

Okello was admitted to Mbarara University School of Medicine in the 1990s, graduating with a

Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery A Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (; MBBS, also abbreviated as BM BS, MB ChB, MB BCh, or MB BChir) is a medical degree granted by medical schools or universities in countries that adhere to the United Kingdom's higher education tradi ...

degree. He continued his studies at

Wuhan University Wuhan University (WHU; 武汉大学) is a key comprehensive public university in Wuhan, Hubei, China. It is directly affiliated with and funded by the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, Ministry of Education of China. The un ...

, in

Wuhan Wuhan; is the capital of Hubei, China. With a population of over eleven million, it is the most populous city in Hubei and the List of cities in China by population, eighth-most-populous city in China. It is also one of the nine National cent ...

Hubei Hubei is a province of China, province in Central China. It has the List of Chinese provincial-level divisions by GDP, seventh-largest economy among Chinese provinces, the second-largest within Central China, and the third-largest among inland ...

, China, graduating with a

Master of Medicine Master of Medicine (MMed, MM) is a postgraduate professional clinical degree awarded by medical schools to physicians following a period of instruction, supervised clinical rotations, and examination. As of May 2009, the following universities ...

degree in

Internal Medicine Internal medicine, also known as general medicine in Commonwealth nations, is a medical specialty for medical doctors focused on the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases in adults. Its namesake stems from "treatment of diseases of ...

. In 2015, he graduated with a

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of Postgraduate education, graduate study and original resear ...

degree from

Makerere University Makerere University (; Mak) is Uganda's largest and oldest institution of higher learning, first established as a technical school in 1922, and the oldest currently active university in East Africa. It became an independent national university in ...

, Uganda's oldest and largest

public university A public university, state university, or public college is a university or college that is State ownership, owned by the state or receives significant funding from a government. Whether a national university is considered public varies from o ...

. He then underwent a one-year fellowship in Interventional Cardiology at

Case Western Reserve University Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) is a Private university, private research university in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It was established in 1967 by a merger between Western Reserve University and the Case Institute of Technology. Case ...

, in

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

, United States. His doctoral thesis was titled "Burden, Risk Factors And Outcome of Rheumatic Heart Disease in Uganda". His research has identified the high morbidity and mortality, along with the big burden that RHD presents. He also found genetic susceptibility to RHD related to the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II Human Leucocyte Antigens (HLA) DR–11.

Career

Okello joined the Uganda Heart Centre in 2010. In a 2019 interview, he stated that he qualified as a cardiologist in 2013. He has mastered the technique known as "percutaneous mitral commissurotomy", performed on patients with severe

mitral stenosis Mitral stenosis is a valvular heart disease characterized by the Stenosis, narrowing of the opening of the mitral valve of the heart. It is almost always caused by Rheumatic Heart Disease, rheumatic valvular heart disease. Normally, the mitral va ...

. Commissurotomy is heart surgery that repairs one of the four internal heart valves (this time the

mitral valve The mitral valve ( ), also known as the bicuspid valve or left atrioventricular valve, is one of the four heart valves. It has two Cusps of heart valves, cusps or flaps and lies between the atrium (heart), left atrium and the ventricle (heart), ...

) that is narrowed from mitral valve stenosis, as a result of fibrosis, often from rheumatic heart disease. "Percutaneous" means that instead of opening up the patient's chest to carry out the procedure in the open, it is done through a small incision in the upper arm. The procedure is performed remotely while watching on a fluoroscopic screen.

Awards and recognition

In April 2019, Okello was elected as a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology by the

American College of Cardiology The American College of Cardiology (ACC), based in Washington, D.C., is a nonprofit medical association established in 1949. It bestows credentials upon cardiovascular specialists who meet its qualifications. Education is a core component of the ...

, based in

Washington, DC Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and Federal district of the United States, federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from ...

, in recognition of his body of work.

References

External links

Website of Uganda Heart Institute
{{DEFAULTSORT:Okello, Emmy 1970s births Lango people Living people Makerere University alumni Mbarara University alumni Wuhan University alumni Case Western Reserve University alumni Ugandan cardiologists Fellows of the American College of Cardiology