Kwaku Ohene-Frempong, M.D., was born in Ghana and came to the United States in 1966 to attend Yale University. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Biology in 1970 and was awarded the William Mallory Award for the Best Student Athlete at Yale. After graduating from the Yale School of Medicine in 1975, he trained in Pediatrics at the New York Hospital – Cornell Medical Center, and in Pediatric Hematology-Oncology (1977-80) at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). Following a 6-year service at Tulane University Medical Center, he returned to CHOP in 1986.
Dr. Ohene-Frempong has been involved in several research projects at the Comprehensive Sickle Cell Center at CHOP and is devoting an increasing amount of time to sickle cell disease work in Africa. In Ghana, he developed the first public health program for screening newborns for sickle cell disease in Africa. With assistance from the government of Brazil, he is working with Brazilian colleagues to scale up the newborn screening project into a national program and develop a Blood and Sickle Cell Center in Kumasi. Ghana launched its national newborn Screening Programme for Sickle Cell Disease in November 2010. Prof. Ohene-Frempong is serving as Programme Coordinator.
Dr. Ohene-Frempong is a Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania, Senior Scientist and Attending Hematologist, and Director Emeritus of the Comprehensive Sickle Cell Center at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.