Habib Gamra, PASCAR President
Professor Habib Gamra obtained his medical degree from Sousse University School of Medicine (Tunisia) in 1987 before starting a residency in Cardiology at Charles Nicolle Hospital, Rouen (France) and a fellowship in interventional cardiology at the Good Samaritan Hospital and University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA that he completed in 1993. He is currently professor in cardiology at the university of Monastir (Tunisia) since 1996 and he currentlyholds the following positions:
- Chairman of the Pan African Course on Interventional Cardiology (PAFCIC) that is held annually since 2000 (www.pafcic.org)
- President of the Tunisian Heart Foundation
- Vice President North of The Panafrican Society of Cardiology (PASCAR)
- Former Head of Cardiology A Department at Fattouma Bourguiba University Hospital - Monastir, Tunisia
- Director of Africa PCR
- Co-Director of CSI Africa congress
- Co-Chairman of Cardio Vascular Clinical Trialists MEMA meeting
- Co-Editor European Heart Journal for North Africa
- Co-Chair of the Expert Group on FDC at the World Heart Federation
- Past President of the working group on interventional cardiology of the Tunisian Society of Cardiology and Cardiovascular Surgery (GTCI)
- Past President of the African Heart Network
- Co-Chair of The Panafrican Society of Cardiology (PASCAR) Interventional Cardiology Task Force (PASCI)
- Stent Save A Life country champion for Tunisia
- Former President of the regulatory specialised commission at the Tunisian Ministry of Health
He is also in the editorial board of various national and international journals.
Anastase Dzudie, President-Elect
Professor Anastase Dzudie is a distinguished Cameroonian cardiologist, Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine and Research at the University of Yaoundé I (UY1), deputy head of cardiology and Head of the Cardiac Arrhythmias Unit at the Douala General Hospital, Cameroon. He trained in Internal Medicine at the UY1, where he worked before specializing in Cardiology and rythmology at the University Hospital of Lyon, France. He completed his PhD in Medicine at the University of Cape Town, South Africa (2015) under supervision of Professor Karen Sliwa.
Prof. Dzudie has over 20 years’ experience combining clinical care, research, and capacity-building to address Africa’s cardiovascular disease burden. He co-founded the Clinical Research Education, Networking and Consultancy (https://crenc.org/) to strengthen research in low- and middle-income settings, particularly in Africa. Within the Pan-African Society of Cardiology (PASCAR), he has held leadership roles as Vice-General Secretary, Vice-President, and Chair of the Hypertension Taskforce, where he led the PASCAR hypertension roadmap and contributed to key clinical trials like CREOLE.
As a dedicated mentor and public health advocate, he has supervised over 50 master’s, MD theses, and PhDs. Author or co-author of over 250 scientific articles, he sits on several expert committees and editorial boards, and continues to inspire progress toward a heart-healthy Africa. His Google Scholar h-index as of July 2025 was 38 with 6132 citations.
Elijah Ogola, PASCAR Immediate Past President
Professor Elijah Nyainda Ogola is the chairman of the department of clinical medicine at the University of Nairobi (Kenya). He is a clinical cardiologist. His main research interest is the emergence of cardiovascular risk factors in Africa.
Mohamed Jeilan, PASCAR Secretary General
Karen Sliwa, PASCAR Treasurer
Professor Karen Sliwa, MD, PhD, FESC, FACC, DTM&H
Director: Cape Heart Institute, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, South Africa
Professor: Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine, Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town, South Africa
Prof. Karen Sliwa is the Director of the Cape Heart Institute, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town- a translational cardiovascular research Institute with 8 distinct research groups.
She is on a joint appointment as senior cardiologist working at the Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine, Groote Schuur Hospital, University of Cape Town and at UCT Private Academic Hospital. Her special areas of expertise are heart failure, structural heart diseases such as cardiomyopathy and cardiac disease in pregnancy.
Prof. Sliwa is widely recognised as a world expert in cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), with a special interest in reducing mortality in women with cardiac disease in maternity. She has contributed to better understanding on the pathophysiology, treatment options and awareness of peripartum cardiomyopathy (PPCM), a global disease particularly prevalent in African populations. Her and her collaborators’ work led to a disease-specific therapy for PPCM. She led and still leads several African and global research projects, which have had a major impact for creating knowledge about CVDs common in Africa and other Lower-to-Middle income regions, leading to changes in policy. Her considerable experience in setting up simple, cost-effective registries and web-based data entry platforms have had a major impact on cardiovascular health and has facilitated the training of physicians from African and beyond.
She holds numerous awards such as the German Cardiac Society Paul Morawitz Award for Exceptional Cardiovascular Research (2013), a Honorary Doctorate University Diderot-Sorbonne, Paris, France (2017), European Cardiac Society Geoffrey Rose Award for Population Sciences (2019) and the South African Medical Research Council Gold award (2021) and the University of Cape Town Alan Pifer Award for Research Excellence ( 2023). Prof. Sliwa has been named the most prolific cardiovascular researcher from Africa with more than 480 publications and her work is highly cited (H-index 110;>150 000 citations).
Over her distinguished career she has served in many notable roles, including chair of the South African Heart Failure Association (HeFSSA), President of the South African Heart Association (2014-2016), President of the World Heart Federation (2019-2020) and currently Board Member and Treasurer of the Pan African Society of Cardiology ( 2021-2025).
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Paul Brink, CVJA Editor
Abdelhamid Moustaghfir, Vice President Northen Region
Liesl Zühlke, Vice President of the Southern region
Professor Zühlke MB CHB DCH FCPaeds Cert Card MPH FACC FESC FAHA MSc MAssaf PHD is the current Vice-President Extramural Unit and Internal Portfolio at the South African Medical Research Council and directs the Children’s Heart Disease Research Unit focused on research into Children’s Heart Diseases of relevance in Africa, based at the Red Cross Hospital and Faculty of Health Sciences UCT. She has over 250 publications, conference proceedings and book chapters, her h-index is 60, she has been cited over 82 000 times and was a recent finalist in the Women in Science Award of South Africa. She was the 2018 recipient of the MRC/Dfid African Research Leader Award, the Winner of the NRF award for Social Impact in Research, the International Metrodora Award for Public Health and Research and the UCT Vice-Chancellors Alan Pfifer Award for research. She is a Fellow of the prestigious UCT College of Fellows, UCT’s highest academic honour and is a Member of the South African Academy of Sciences (MAssaf). In 2024, she was inducted into The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) and is a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology, European Society of cardiology and American Heart Association. She is NRF B-1 rated. She was the previous President of the Paediatric Cardiac Society of South Africa, The South African Heart Association and the Chair of the RHD and CHD Pn-African Society of Cardiology groups. Internationally she serves as the President of Reach ( the only RHD NGO internationally), was board member of World Heart Federation and Non-Communicable Diseases Alliance (2022-2024), International scientific advisory board of Children's Heart Link and an executive member of SAVAC (Strep A Vaccine Global Consortium). She is an active and vociferous advocate for the advancement and empowerment of equity and women in medicine: including being on the Lancet Commission for Women in Cardiovascular Disease. Her greatest joy in life is family; hiking or travelling with her husband, Alexander a reconstructive surgeon and their children, Gabriel an intern at Tygerberg Hospital and Eli, studying chemical engineering at UCT and their dogs.
Okello Emmy, Vice President Eastern Region
Ikama Méo Stéphane , Vice President Central Region
After our Baccalaureate in 1992, we were admitted to the Faculty of Health Sciences of the Marien NGOUABI University of Brazzaville. These trainings allowed us to obtain the Doctorate in Medicine in 2001, then the Certificate of Special Studies in Cardiology in 2004. Then, we were recruited as specialist doctors at the University Hospital of Brazzaville in 2005, then Assistant at the Faculty of Health Sciences of the Marien NGOUABI University in 2009. Since then, we have been able to climb the various levels of CAMES in higher education (Assistant Professor in 2012, Associate Professor in 2016, Full Professor in 2020). Since 2021, we have been Head of the Cardiology Department at the Brazzaville University Hospital. We are members of several learned societies and have participated in several scientific meetings at the national, regional, and international levels. We have participated in several research projects and are the authors of several scientific publications and communications
Mahmoud Sani, Vice President Western Region
I am a Professor of Medicine with Bayero University Kano and Consultant Physician and cardiologist with the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, Kano Nigeria. I obtained an MBBS degree in 1993, followed by rigorous Internal Medicine and Cardiology Residency Training, winning the prestigious SF Kuku Prize for the Best Graduating Fellow of the West African College of Physicians in 2002. I also earned a PhD in Medicine from the University of Cape Town as well as attended the prestigious advanced heart failure training at the University of Zurich and train to teach medicine course at the Harvard Medical School. I joined Bayero University in July 2002 as Lecturer I and rose through the ranks to become a professor in 2013. I was at various times, Sub-Dean, Head of Department, Deputy Provost, Dean, and most recently, Deputy Vice Chancellor (Management Services) at Bayero University Kano.
I was fortunate to trained and mentored over 20 Consultant Cardiologists and 4 PhDs. I have also been a Principal Investigator in many multi-center clinical trials/registries and successfully procured academic funds in excess of 3 million dollars. My achievements have been recognized through Fellowships from esteemed organizations, including the European Society of Cardiology, the American College of Physicians, the American College of Cardiology, the Nigerian Cardiac Society, and the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. I have been an Examiner for the West African College of Physicians since 2008 and a World Heart Federation Emerging Leader since 2015.
