Professor Jacob Plange-Rhule, physician and physiologist, died in Accra, Ghana as a result of COVID-19 infection. At the time of his death he was Rector of the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons. He was a successful investigator in physiology and community epidemiology, a committed educator, and an academic leader. He also played a major role in establishing the specialty of nephrology in Ghana.
Jacob Plange-Rhule was born in Winneba , a coastal town, in 1957 shortly after Ghana gained independence. He moved to the capital for his secondary education studying at the Accra Academy. He entered the School of Medical Sciences, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi, completing a BSc in human biology in 1981, and then studying medicine graduating MB ChB in 1984. His potential was recognised early, and he won an award as a final year medical student to spend his vacation at the MRC Unit in Gambia.
In 1987, after junior clinical posts in Kumasi, he was awarded a 4-year British Council scholarship to study in the Department of Physiology, University of Manchester. He completed his PhD on the natriuretic effects of arginine vasopressin in 1991.
On his return to Ghana he taught physiology as Lecturer in the Department of Physiology at the School of Medical Sciences [KNUST] from 1992, in due course becoming professor and serving as head of the Department of Physiology for over a decade. He also completed his training in Internal medicine, and was appointed consultant physician at Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) Kumasi, where he became head of nephrology services.
In 1994 he developed a research link with Dr. John Eastwood, a renal physician at St. George’s Hospital, London. His early funding included a grant in 1995 from the Association of Physicians of Great Britain and Ireland which facilitated a pilot study on the prevalence of high blood pressure in the city of Kumasi. To support this endeavour, Jacob started at KATH the first blood pressure clinic in Kumasi. He became an Honorary Senior Lecturer at St George’s University of London, and in 2000 with Wellcome Trust funding established village-based field work to study the prevalence of high blood pressure, and the influence of salt intake, in 12 villages in the Ashanti region. He was an inspiring leader of the work, building a loyal team of junior doctors and nurses who he supervised and deployed with great skill. Many of these junior doctors continued clinical research related to renal medicine and high blood pressure, and indeed volunteered to help again in 2014 when the same population was re-visited for a follow-up study.
He also collaborated with Dr. Amy Luke, Loyola University Chicago, and was the Ghana lead investigator for a U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded study of energy determinants in obesity, diabetes and hypertension. Jacob’s extensive experience of working with village chiefs, inhabitants and health workers enabled him to establishteams to conduct fieldwork in the Ashanti region that continues to this day, . Jacob also worked on other NIH-sponsored projects including a training programme in cardiovascular disease epidemiology for physicians and scientists, and a genetic epidemiology study on kidney disease across sub-Saharan Africans.
The above two overseas collaborative studies led to the majority of Jacob's publications initially but more recently Jacob's research became more Ghana-led. Since 2017 he was involved with the H3Africa Kidney Disease Research Network and had a special interest in task-shifting in the management of high blood pressure, both of which led to high quality publications. This is an important aspect of his legacy.
In 2001, when he was president of the Ghana Medical Association, Jacob hosted the first visit of the International Society of Nephrology (ISN) to West Africa [Ghana & Nigeria]. During the visit there was a nephrology CME meeting, and this element of training has been delivered annually ever since. In 2010, he was a foundation member and Vice-President of the Ghana Kidney Association, and President from 2014. He played an important role in establishing a nephrology training programme in Ghana in 2012 leading to a Fellowship in Nephrology at the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons. He also played a major part in developing a national renal care programme.
Jacob played an increasingly important part in the growth and success of medicine and nephrology in Ghana as Vice-Rector (2011-2015) and then (from 2015 until his demise) as Rector of the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons.
He was a valued friend - easy going, loyal, and dependable. These gifts combined with his natural flair for leadership made him a highly effective researcher, teacher and administrator. He invoked great loyalty in those he trained, and part of his legacy is that many of the young doctors who joined his community research projects are now nephrologists in Ghana.
His energy was formidable, managing to continue as clinician, researcher, and teacher while in his leadership roles. Badminton was his favoured recreation. He played frequently from medical student days throughout his career until he ruptured both his Achilles tendons in his early forties and started playing golf. Many collaborators and visitors from overseas will remember Jacob's generous habit of welcoming them by being in Arrivals in the airport to meet them.
His death when still at the height of his powers is a special sadness. He achieved so much for Ghanaian medicine and nephrology, yet there could have been so much more.
In 1987 Jacob married Gyikua, a paediatrician. He is survived by her and their three daughters, Kwegyiwa, Ama and Araba