Café Smart: One Africa, One Health

The University of Eastern Finland’s Café Smart on Africa Day will serve the discussion: One Africa, One Health.

In 2023, Africa is making plans to accelerate collaboration and trade within the continent. Notwithstanding this, it is more essential than ever before to look towards more multisectoral and transdisciplinary collaborative approaches at the local, regional, national and global levels to recognise the interconnection between people, animals, plants and the shared environment for a healthy planet - the concept of One Health.

Welcome to hear more about collaborative efforts and steps towards One Africa, One Health in the UEF Café Smart in an expert discussion between Dr Frank Adusei-Mensah, Wadzanai Masvosva (MD, MSc) and Isaac Adaam (MA).

Frank Adusei-Mensah (PGD-Health Edu (AmO), PhD, PhD, MSc) is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Institute of Public Health and Clinical Nutrition (UEF) with a multidisciplinary experience in public and pharmacoepidemiology, health interventional studies including m-health, designing and interpreting clinical trials, real-world post-market vaccine and medicine safety and efficacy studies and natural product research.

Wadzanai Masvosva (MD, MSc) is a Doctoral Researcher in the School of Pharmacy (UEF) Finland. Her research focuses on the use of metabolomics in the discovery of novel biomarkers to identify prenatal alcohols and drug exposure. She is a medical doctor, having studied general medicine in the Ukraine and completing her master’s degree in general toxicology at UEF.

Isaac Adaam (MA) serves as the Middle East and Africa Regional Manager for Bittium Biosignals Limited, Finland, a role that has seen him advocating for a paradigm shift in heart rhythm diagnostics diagnostics powered out of hospital holter technologies like the FDA and CE-approved innovative 4-in-1 ECG technology from Bittium. Isaac believes the current healthcare system especially in developing economies does not offer possibilities to reach the most vulnerable of society, a reason why he believes in value-based healthcare that should be propelled by smart healthcare business models. Isaac Adaam is an UEF alumnus, having completed his master’s degree in international economic law in 2019.

This Café Smart will be a live streamed studio discussion hosted by Post-Doctoral Researcher Suchetana De Storvik from the Institute of Public Health and Clinical Nutrition and School of Pharmacy (UEF).  Her PhD research focused on exploring ethical issues of disclosing genetic information. Her educational background includes a bachelor’s degree in dental surgery from India and a master’s degree in toxicology from UEF. She is actively involved in coordinating research and educational collaborations between the southern African universities and UEF through a global network of the Ministry of Education and Culture, the Southern Africa Finland Network for Health and Wellbeing (SAFINET).

Her Excellency, Former President, Dr Ameenah Gurib-Fakim of the Republic of Mauritius will give an opening address at this Café Smart.  She is a biodiversity scientist, entrepreneur and author. She served as 6th and First Female President of the Republic of Mauritius (2015-2018), prior to which she was the Managing Director of the “Centre International de Développement Pharmaceutique (CIDP) Research and Innovation” and Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of Mauritius where she also served successively as Dean of the Faculty of Science and Pro Vice Chancellor. As a Founding Member of the Pan African Association of African Medicinal Plants, she coauthored the first ever African Herbal Pharmacopoeia. H.E. President Gurib-Fakim earned a BSc in Chemistry from the University of Surrey (1983) and a PhD from the University of Exeter, UK (1987).