Professor Joseph Mucumbitsi

Professor Joseph Mucumbitsi is Chief Consultant Pediatrician & Cardiologist at King Faisal Hospital, Kigali (KFH,K) and Associate Professor (Hon) of Pediatrics, University of Rwanda.

Joseph graduated from the National University of Rwanda. He obtained his MMED in Pediatrics, a Fellowship in Pediatric Cardiology and an MSc degree in Clinical Research from the Catholic University of Louvain (UCL) in Brussels, Belgium, where he has worked for 10 years.

As the Coordinator of the national cardiac surgery program for the past 10 years, he has collaborated with the Ministry of Health (MOH), KFH,K and international surgical visiting teams,  to build a comprehensive cardiac care service in the country. He has been a member of the Board of Directors of Team Heart since 2008.

He has also worked closely with the MOH and the Rwanda Biomedical Center (RBC) on the National NCD policy, strategic plan and action plan, as well as the NCD protocols and treatment guidelines, as the chair of the national CVD technical working group.

Joseph has been involved in different national and international research projects on CVD, congenital heart disease, and RHD prevention, screening, and surgical outcomes. He is an active member of working groups on RHD, collaborating with the World Heart Federation (WHF) and the PanAfrican Society of Cardiology (PASCAR). He has been active as speaker and session chairperson during WCC and PASCAR Congresses the last 6 years.

He is the author or co-author of peer reviewed articles and book chapter and has been the Chief Editor of the Rwanda Medical Journal, the main peer reviewed open access medical journal in the country since 2006.

Joseph is the Founder and President of the Rwanda Heart Foundation (RHF), a member of the African Heart Network (AHN) and the WHF since 2008. He is member of the executive board of AHN since 2012. He is also a member of the newly formed Rwanda NCD Alliance and East Africa NCD Alliance, and he is the Vice Chair of both NGOs.