Meet Our Director General/CEO

The current and founding Director-General/CEO of KIRCT is Professor Hamisu Salihu (MD, PhD) who was previously the Director at Baylor College of Medicine Centre of Excellence (COE) in the United States of America (USA). He is a Professor of Medicine & Public Health, and a US-licensed physician with strong expertise in population-based research. As of February 2025, he had published about 500 peer-reviewed articles mostly in high-impact journals. Over the decades, he has brought to his research enterprise approximately 250 million US dollars in grant funding individually or collaboratively. These include grants funded by the NIH (National Institutes of Health), the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), AHRQ (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality) and HRSA (Health Resources and Services Administration), just to mention a few examples. The impact of his scientific contributions and leadership in research enterprise is reflected in national and international recognition. Earlier in his career, he was described by the New York Times as one of the world’s leading researchers in stillbirth (New York Times, April 1, 2008). He was featured in Time Magazine as a pioneer in the epidemiology of the male biologic clock in humans (Time, April 22, 2013).

Based on his research in the area of health disparities in underserved and minority communities in the United States, Prof. Salihu was appointed as member of the National Panel advising the Secretary of Health at the US Department of Health and Human Services (Division of Maternal and Child Health) to address issues linked to health equity in the US. He also continues to serve as reviewer on several NIH study sessions, mostly on special emphasis panels (SEPs). Professor Hamisu serves as member of the Board of Directors and the Leadership Council of the American College of International Medicine. He is also a member of the Oversight/Advisory Committee for I-CARE at Texas Biomedical Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas, USA, and member of IVAN Research Institute Board of Governors. Prof. Salihu is a founding member of the SCOR Consortium, an international assembly of scientists and researchers from the US, Canada, Europe, South America, Asia and Africa that aims to tackle global health issues (e.g., the COVID-19 pandemic) through research using artificial intelligence systems (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32918447/).

Professor Salihu has been very successful in mentoring, and to-date, he has formally mentored a total of 965 individuals at various stages of their career as researchers, faculty, public health practitioners, top-class physicians/surgeons, and entrepreneurs in the healthcare industry. The list also includes students (i.e., medical students; nursing students, and Masters/Doctoral students). Many of these individuals are now pursuing exciting careers or occupy leadership positions in academic settings, government agencies (e.g., NIH, CDC), academic institutions (e.g., at several universities in the US and Canada) and other non-governmental organizations.

Professor Salihu is a renowned leader in the innovation space and has invented several novel platforms utilized for educational capacity-building, mentoring, evaluation, and provision of healthcare services. They include:

  • CHAT technology: CHAT stands for “Community Health Analytics Training”, a technology platform that facilitates delivery of programs, educational products and digital content in a simplified format using the MDI (multi-dimensional intelligence) model. The system enhances comprehension and accelerates attainment of capacity-building competencies through elimination of cognitive fatigue and boredom.
  • CPI (stands for “Community Priority Index”; and published in: Salihu et al. Community-based decision making and priority setting using the R software: the community priority index. Computational and Mathematical Methods in Medicine 2015;2015:347501. doi: 10.1155/2015/347501. PMID: 25815045). This is a ranking system based on a machine learning algorithm that is used in the administration and management of resources.

 

  • CII (Collective Impact Index): It is important for collaborative entities to measure and monitor the effectiveness of their partnerships, especially with respect to accomplishments of outcomes that matter most. For instance, as an organization initiates and cultivates relationships to improve health outcomes across population groups, measuring the collective impact and sustainability of these relationships will identify areas of strength and weakness. In 2018, Prof. Salihu provided strategic and technical leadership that resulted in the creation of the “Collective Impact Index” (CII) in collaboration with the Healthy Start Program (Salihu et al. The Collective Impact Index (CII): A New Instrument to Evaluate and Foster Collaborative Partnership in Public Health. International Journal of MCH and AIDS 2018;7(1):207-216). This novel product is of immense utility in coalition building to address issues that threaten public health.

Progress: Within six months after becoming the DG/CEO at KIRCT, Prof. Hamisu Salihu pioneered the first indigenous EMR (Electronic Medical Record) system in Kano State in collaboration with colleagues at UTHealth in Houston, Texas. The EMR is now deployed at certain facilities in Kano and Jigawa States of Nigeria. In less than two years, the DG has established a hospital and a state-of-the-art laboratory complex for research in Genomics, AMR (anti-microbial resistance), surveillance of PPP (pathogens with pandemic potential) and for clinical trials with donation from Pfizer, the Pharma Giant. Under Professor Salihu’s leadership, a cutting-edge biorepository is being created at KIRCT that will be of utility in future research and development of novel therapeutics and vaccines to address the health challenges in Kano, Nigeria, Africa and humanity in general. Thus, he is steadily molding KIRCT into an international hub for innovation and discovery. To quote him verbatim “My vision is to make KIRCT one of the top high-performing health research centers in the world in the area of of innovation, discovery, entrepreneurship, and impact. This is possible given the talent, assets, and social capital available at KIRCT.”