By Maria Kwami Gwira
Ho, Aug 27, GNA – Meeting Dr Augustine Afriyie is to encounter someone who balances purpose with calm confidence. He grew up in Santasi, a suburb of Kumasi, in a closeknit family where his parents had the typical middleclass aspirations for their children: become a doctor, a lawyer, an engineer, a pharmacist or a nurse.
He attended Martyrs of Uganda for Basic Education and then went on to Opoku Ware School for secondary education, all in the same Santasi enclave.
“Mum didn’t want me to go to school too far from home for fear I would not be able to fend for myself in the real world,” Dr Afriyie said.
Although making it out of Santasi to attend medical school was not common, what drove him to defy the odds and apply to medical school, anyway, was very simple. The loss of his beloved grandmother (who was a major presence in his formative years) to complications from hypertension, empowered him to assuage his mother’s fears and move 334 kilometers away to the University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS) in Ho.
Six years later, he was among the 42 students who made history as the first crop of medical doctors to graduate from the UHAS School of Medicine.
He holds a full licensure to practice medicine in Ghana and in the United Kingdom.
Building on the Foundation of Community Service
Dr Afriyie’s medical training at the UHAS shaped his commitment to service and global citizenship. The university embraces core values centered on community impact.
After graduation in 2020, he worked as a clinical research and primary care physician at Ho Teaching Hospital; and then as a primary care physician and paramedic with International SOS at Newmont Africa in Koforidua.
Working in smaller towns and rural communities exposed him to the realities of limited resources, preventable illnesses and the need for stronger public health systems.
He supported preventive outreach for conditions including hypertension, diabetes, hepatitis B and HIV, and these experiences shaped his interest in community health. They also informed his research on Ghana’s Community-based Health Planning and Services program, whose systematic review has received 48 citations.
It would take another four years to drive him to the next step in his career. His desire to understand disease (specifically cancer) causation, had already begun to take shape when he was assigned to care for a 17-year-old patient at Eastern Regional Hospital:
“He’d tell me all about his interests and dream career; he really aspired to become a doctor like me. Unfortunately, we lost him to lymphoma within a short time. Since then, I’ve never been the same.”
This loss became a catalyst for Augustine’s decision to pursue opportunities where research, science and innovation could improve outcomes beyond the consulting room.
Translating Research into Practical Skills
Today, he is building a scientific foundation to do exactly that. In 2024, he enrolled in the MSc. in Professional Science programme at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) to study biotechnology. The programme blends scientific training with industry skills.
His goal is to combine his clinical background with biotechnology and translational research to help develop solutions that improve patient outcomes on a broad scale, particularly within the biopharmaceutical and life sciences industries.
At MTSU, Augustine works as a graduate research assistant in Dr. Robertson’s laboratory, where he studies how changes in gene length may influence the structure and function of the Huntington protein, using a fruit-fly model.
As a bench scientist, he performs molecular cloning, PCR, bacterial transformation and plasmid construction, while maintaining detailed records and helping develop standard operating procedures. His clinical experience keeps the work grounded in a simple truth: behind every experiment is a patient who needs answers. His wider publications span public health, biotechnology and cancer research, with more than 80 citations, while manuscripts from the Huntington’s disease project remain in preparation.
Alongside his academic research, Dr. Afriyie is gaining industry experience through a quality and regulatory affairs internship at Schwan Cosmetics, USA. He completed a quality improvement project to standardize weigh-booth cleaning practices and strengthen contamination control in the compounding department. His recommendations were accepted, leading to the adoption of a revised cleaning procedure and supporting documentation, with a validation study planned in collaboration with his supervisor and the compounding team.
He also supported a successful external audit by helping ensure laboratory and regulatory records were complete and inspection ready. These experiences have deepened his understanding of how quality systems protect consumers and support safe, reliable products.
An earlier externship at Project CURE strengthened his understanding of medical equipment quality, documentation review, and logistics. He has also applied R and geospatial analysis to Environmental Justice Index data, examining associations between poverty and cancer outcomes and mapping patterns across the Memphis area and East Tennessee. He later used statistical analysis to support evidence-based recommendations in his internship of quality improvement projects.
Global Citizenship, Recognition and Scholarly work
Community service remains central to Augustine’s identity. He is a member of several professional organisations, including the National Society of Leadership Success, the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, the American Public Health Association, the General Medical Council, and the Ghana Medical Association.
He serves on the Biomedical Committee of the American Red Cross in Middle Tennessee after first volunteering with its disaster response team during tornadoes and other local emergencies. Recognizing his medical background and understanding of sickle cell disease, chapter leadership appointed him to help develop strategies for increasing blood donations among underrepresented communities.
During a WKU-MTSU blood drive, he helped increase first-time donors by approximately 65 percent, with many coming from communities of color, supporting efforts to improve blood availability for patients with sickle cell disease.
As Deputy Students’ Director for Parenting Children of Color in New York, he mentors more than thirty students and helps run programs that address educational disparities. He has also volunteered as a health educator at the MTSU Health Clinic and contributed to the Tennessee Rural Community Opioid Response Programme.
Augustine has earned several honors reflecting sustained academic achievement. He was one of three students selected from about eight graduate programs for the Arlene Griva Memorial Endowed Scholarship, received graduate research and teaching assistantships throughout his program, and placed second within his college during MTSU Scholars’ Week, which featured about 200 presentations. He was also selected for membership in Phi Kappa Phi and previously received recognition as Best Doctoral Student in Public Health.
A Future Focused on Upscaling Impact
Augustine’s vision for the future is shaped by a simple truth: treating one patient at a time is meaningful, but building solutions that help thousands is transformative. His clinical years showed him the human face of disease, while his scientific training is helping him understand the molecular forces behind conditions such as cancer and neurodegeneration.
He wants to work at the point where these two worlds intersect. His aim is to join organizations in the biopharmaceutical and life sciences sectors that develop tools, technologies and treatments capable of improving outcomes on a broad scale. He is moving from solving problems for individuals in a consulting room to helping shape solutions that strengthen entire populations.
In his words: “I have seen patients suffer, and now I understand the science behind their diseases. My goal is to help build innovations that change the trajectory of illness for many people at once.”
It is a vision rooted in compassion, sharpened by science, and carried forward by a physician who believes that better health is possible when knowledge is used boldly and responsibly.
Writer: Maria Kwami Gwira, a communications strategist, is the former Director of Public Affairs at the University of Health and Allied Sciences.
GNA
Edited by: Maxwell Awumah/Benjamin Mensah