Black Stars doctor speaks at Mirror Father’s Day lunch

The team doctor of the senior national soccer team, the Black Stars, Dr Prince Pambo, is the speaker for this year’s men’s health at The Mirror Father’s Day buffet lunch.

The event comes off at noon tomorrow at the Oak Plaza Hotel. Each year, beyond the tasty meals and entertaining live band experience, there is always a platform for fathers to have an insight into men’s health and well-being.

Profile
Dr Prince Pambo is an expert with vast experience in the field of cardiology, which makes him a sought-after across the African continent.

As the team doctor for the Black Stars, he plays the role of a sports physician, plans and conducts pre-competition medical assessment and provides both on-field and pitch-side emergency medical services. 

This is a role he has played for other national soccer teams. He performs his duty excellently, endearing him to elite players.
The multifaceted Specialist Sports and Exercise Medicine Physician is also a part-time lecturer, teaching at the post-graduate level at the Department of Physiotherapy, College of Health Sciences, University of Ghana.

He has been practising for over a decade, in addition to being an attending Physician (Medical Director) at the Civil Service Polyclinic in Accra and conducting a pre-competition medical assessment (PCMA) for soccer teams in Ghana. He also attends to both elite and recreational athletes presenting with sports-related injuries.

In his general practice at the Parliament House Clinic, Dr Pambo sees clients with chronic non-communicable diseases (hypertension, diabetes, obesity and cancers), where exercise prescription forms the core of his practice.

National level
At the national level, Dr Pambo is a member of the National Anti-Doping Organisation (NADO) and part of a technical working group tasked by the Ministry of Health and the World Bank to develop a national policy for non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and strategies to mitigate the incidence of NCDs.

As a passionate person about fair play in sports, he is a member of the Medical Committee of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and a Doping Control Officer (DCO).

His research has contributed to the development of ethnic-specific and sensitive ECG and ECHO interpretation criteria, leading to a reduction in false positives and unfair disqualifications during pre-competition medical assessment in a multi-ethnic setting.
 
Research
The issue of age verification in competitive sports is an area of study he finds great interest. In view of this, his research is aimed at creating a fair playing field for participants to remain in their age brackets through scientific verification methods and workable means of enforcing the same on the African continent.

Dr Pambo is an alumnus of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, where he obtained his BSc and MB.chB; the University of Nottingham, where he specialised in Sports and Exercise; the Saarland University, Saarbrücken, Germany, where he carried out a PhD study in the area of Sports Cardiology at the Institute of Sports and Preventive Medicine.

He is an avid athlete and advocates healthy lifestyle choices. Dr Pambo is married with three daughters and enjoys swimming and relaxed social gatherings with family and friends.