Growing up in Accra, Ghana, Raphael Awuah spent a lot of time in the hospital.
On his way home from school, Raphael would stop at the country’s largest teaching hospital, and wait for his mother—a nurse for nearly 40 years—to finish her shift.
“I got the opportunity to spend a lot of time with her in that work setting,” said Raphael, who calls himself a naturally curious child. “I was running around, trying to figure out what everyone was doing, asking a lot of questions.”
Before long, Raphael earned a reputation among his mother’s colleagues. “Whenever I went to see my mom, her colleagues were intrigued by my curiosity and eagerness to learn about their work, so they ended up calling me ‘doctor.’”
The nickname stuck. Though Raphael found himself at his mother’s workplace after most school days, when he was not there, his mother’s colleagues would ask after him. “How is the doctor doing?”
Raphael liked the title. But did it make him think about becoming a doctor?
“I wasn’t truly interested in pursuing a medical degree,” said Raphael. But the exposure to his mother’s work did spark a more general interest in health sciences.
After earning a dual undergraduate degree in Geography and Political Science at the University of Ghana, Raphael went to graduate school to pursue a master’s degree in Population Studies. That’s when he developed an interest in noncommunicable diseases, such as hypertension and diabetes. “I shifted to population health because I had an affinity for healthy living and improving the well-being of others.”
Immersed as he was in academic research, Raphael started down a path which has allowed him to live up to his childhood nickname, earning a Ph.D. in Population Studies, with a focus on population health.
For the first year of his doctoral program, Raphael studied at the Population Research Institute, Pennsylvania State University as an Exchange Research Scholar. There, he could apply the skills he’d learned back home in a new environment and engage with other graduate students—which ultimately shaped the direction of his career.
“Before I left for Penn State, my plan was to pursue a Ph.D. and then get into academia,” said Raphael. But his interaction with graduate students from different parts of the world opened his eyes to other possibilities—and he realized that getting a Ph.D. did not mean that his only options were to work in academia.
Raphael returned to Ghana to complete his doctoral program at the University of Ghana. His doctoral dissertation examined the association between psychosocial factors and noncommunicable diseases among Ghanaian migrants in Europe and their counterparts in Ghana who had never migrated.
His research revealed that Ghanaian migrants, particularly women, experienced regular episodes of home- and work-related stress, which was associated with higher odds of hypertension. Non-migrant men, on the other hand, had higher odds of hypertension associated with negative life events—such as a serious illness or injury, loss of a close family member, or a major financial crisis.
Having completed his education, Raphael started to look for opportunities. He worked as a research project manager on different health-related projects. He later saw an opening with Vital Strategies and the city government in Accra, as an embedded consultant for road injury surveillance for the Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety.
“I was hesitant to apply. I worried that I was overqualified because the job posting was not clear on what postgraduate degree was required—whether a master’s or a Ph.D.,” Raphael recalls. “I sent the application in on the very last day.”
Raphael got the job, working as an embedded consultant for two and half years, coordinating the collection, analysis and reporting of road injury data from police and health facilities throughout the city. He also engaged with partners at the national level to plan the implementation of an electronic road crash data system.
“I enjoy what I do because I work closely with local and external partners to use a data-driven approach to save lives from road crashes, which is the leading cause of death among young people aged 5 to 29 years. It is unacceptable to see people die from this preventable cause of death.”
In 2020, he was hired for his current position at Vital Strategies as the Regional Technical Advisor, Africa, for Road Injury Surveillance. Based in Accra, he supports city governments across the continent to strengthen road injury surveillance systems and produce quality data to inform policy and implement interventions that save lives. He has been involved in road safety projects in Kumasi, Mombasa, Addis Ababa and other cities.
“One of the things I’ve done with colleagues is to establish a data use culture within city governments in the region to help reduce deaths and injuries.”
Data, he points out, can tell a story of what the magnitude of the problem is, what the trend looks like, and who is most at risk. It can also pinpoint when the risk periods are highest, and where those high-risk locations are.
Although his initial interest in public health was connected to the study of noncommunicable diseases, Raphael says the pivot to injury surveillance was not that far off. “In many instances, there is a strong link between noncommunicable diseases and injuries,” he said, pointing out that noncommunicable diseases and injuries are the leading causes of premature mortality in many low- and middle-income countries.
This was an exciting new challenge for him. “There aren’t many people in Ghana who work on road injury surveillance. Now we are beginning to shift the narrative to highlight road safety as a public health issue.”
Raphael is grateful to Sylviane Ratte and Sara Whitehead of Vital’s Road Safety program for their role in his professional development.
“The two of them have been key in shaping who I have become,” said Raphael, crediting their thoughtfulness and leadership qualities. “I have learned a lot from them.”
In addition to the fulfillment he gets from his work, Raphael’s role at Vital checks off an important item on his bucket list.
“When I was an undergraduate, one of my dreams was to work with an international organization. I recall writing this on a piece of paper and putting it in my wallet.”
Another bucket list item was attending a Chelsea Football Club match in person. “I’ve always loved football,” he says, adding that after his undergraduate studies he had some experience broadcasting football analyses on radio and television. When Ghanaian football star Michael Essien joined Chelsea in 2005, Raphael became a fan for life. “Essien had attended my senior high school, so when he went to Chelsea, it was an easy decision to support the team.”
Raphael did, in fact, get the opportunity to see Chelsea play at Stamford Bridge Stadium. “I was in London for a week, and I took a day off to watch them play,” Raphael recalls, describing it as a dream come true. “Even 10 years later, I still get goosebumps thinking about it.”
There are other items on that list. Traveling to Australia is one of them. And he would like to go on a cruise. He is also considering a role with the World Health Organization some day, if the opportunity arises.
As for the list itself—the piece of paper he used to keep in his wallet—it has disintegrated. “The last time I checked it was in pieces.”
But his wishes and dreams remain written in his mind.