- Emmy Okello <emmyoks@gmail.com>
- Makerere University, College of Health Sciences
Emmy Okello, an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine, Makerere University and Chief of the Division of Adult Cardiovascular Medicine, Uganda Heart Institute (UHI). He heads the rheumatic heart disease research collaborative at the UHI, a consortium of national and international researchers focused on reducing the burden of rheumatic heart disease (RHD) in Uganda and around the world.
Okello graduated from Mbarara University School of Medicine with a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery degree. He continued his studies at Wuhan University-Hubei, China graduating with a Master of Medicine degree in Internal Medicine. He earned his PhD from Makerere University in 2015. His doctoral thesis was titled- “Burden, Risk Factors and Outcome of Rheumatic Heart Disease in Uganda” it documents the high morbidity and mortality rates of RHD. Hereafter, he underwent a one-year fellowship in Interventional Cardiology at Case Western Reserve University, in Cleveland, Ohio, United States.
In April 2019, he was awarded the title of Fellow of the American College of Cardiology by the American College of Cardiology, based in Washington, DC, in recognition of his work in the field of Rheumatic Heart Disease (RHD). He started a RHD registry to document cases and carried out research to determine the burden of the RHD in Uganda.
As a THRiVE-2 postdoctoral Fellow, Dr. Okello explored the epidemiology and pathogenesis of acute rheumatic fever in Lira District, Northern Uganda. This study is expected to improve the diagnosis of acute rheumatic fever diagnosis and contribute to the reduction of morbidity and mortality associated with RHD, the long-term consequence of rheumatic fever. He has been mentored by Professor James Tumwine (Makerere), Dr. Andrea Beaton (Washington), Dr. Tom Parks (LSHTM) and Professor Jonathan Carapetis (Australia).
Through this research, he intends to characterize the uptake of RHD screening within populations of Kitgum and Amuru districts; determine the optimal mix of different active case-finding approaches for a positive RHD screening exam among 5-39 year olds in the two districts; understand determinants of linkage to care following a positive RHD screening exam and evaluate the durability of the ADUNU (Accelerating Delivery of Rheumatic Heart Disease Prevention in Northern Uganda) Program on patient outcomes after 24 months of diagnosis of patients in the two districts.
In his free time, Pulle enjoys watching soccer, movies, jogging, cooking and playing basketball. Currently, he spends most of his free time with his young family.
