Our #WCW is Dr Kudzai Kanyepi.Kanyepi is the first female cardiothoracic surgeon in Zimbabwe and the 13th female cardiothoracic surgeon in Africa.
Zimbabwe only has five cardiothoracic surgeons & 4 of them are men. Kanyepi is part of a group of surgeons who successfully performed open heart surgery on 12 individuals at Parirenyatwa Hospital in Harare.

Kanyepi said her journey started with undergraduate training at the University of Zimbabwe, followed by a two-year internship at the Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals.

“(That is) where I fell in love with surgery,” she said. “After completing my internship, I moved to Durban, South Africa, for my cardiothoracic surgery training and qualified as a cardiothoracic surgeon in 2021.”

Kanyepi noted the limited number of cardiothoracic surgeons around the world.

“However,” she noted, “the demand for my services is higher in Africa specifically, as the burden of diseases is overwhelming. Heart diseases are quite common in the developing countries, so large numbers of patients need the often-inaccessible cardio surgery.”

Below is the short summary of her profile:

????MBChB (UZ, 2012)
????Fellowship in Cardiothoracic Surgery (CMSA, 2021)
????Locum Casualty Officer at St Anne’s Hospital (2014 – 2015)
????Medical doctor at Parirenyatwa (2012 – 2015) Medical doctor at EMRAS (2014 – 2016)
????Registrar Cardiothoracic Surgery at Inkosi Albert Luthuli Hospital (2017 – 2021)
????Cardiothoracic Surgeon at Parirenyatwa (2022 – present)