Researcher profile

Richard Odame Phillips

Richard Odame Phillips is a Professor of Medicine at the School of Medical Sciences and the Director of the Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research (KCCR) at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Ghana. KCCR is a joint venture between KNUST, the Ministry of Health Ghana, and the Bernard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine in Germany. Prof. Richard Phillips holds a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery (MBChB, 1993), a PhD in Infection and Immunity from the University of London (2005), and a Fellowship in Internal Medicine from the West African Postgraduate Medical College (FWACP, 2008). He was awarded the Ghana College of Physicians Fellowship by election in 2013. With 29 years of experience in the practice of medicine, he has worked as an Infectious Disease Consultant at Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi. He is a member of the NTD Regional Programme Review Group (RPRG) established by the WHO. He also serves as the Vice Chair of the Ghana Intra-Country Coordinating Committee(ICCC) for NTDs, a high-level body that reports to the Minister of Health in Ghana. Additionally, he is the Vice Chair of the Drug Development and Access Working Group established by the WHO. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, he has provided leadership for the COVID-19 response at KCCR, which is the second largest testing center in Ghana. Richard was a member of the Ghana National COVID-19 Laboratory Testing Committee, which provides oversight and technical direction to the COVID-19 testing laboratories. He has received several awards, including the highly sought after MRC African Research Leader Award and the prestigious EDCTP Senior Fellowship award. He has successfully managed several research projects, trained PhDs and Master's students, and produced over 200 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters (orcid.org/0000-0001-8992-0222).