Center for
Global Health

Scholar

Languages: English 

BIO STATEMENT

Dr. Farouk Dako is an Associate Professor of Radiology at Penn and the new Director of the Botswana-Upenn Partnership as well as the Founding Director of Penn’s Center for Global and Population Health Research in Radiology. He is a highly respected global health researcher and clinician whose work in medical imaging, artificial intelligence, and health systems innovation has advanced clinical care and health equity in low-resource settings, particularly across sub-Saharan Africa.

Dr. Dako brings deep leadership experience and a strong track record of cross-sector collaboration to BUP. He currently directs RAD-AID International’s Nigeria program and co-founded a healthcare and education NGO that has served thousands of people in need of care. His multi-institutional programmatic work emphasizes sustainability, local ownership, and effective skills transfer, proving his functional and philosophic alignment with BUP’s overarching mission of regional healthcare capacity strengthening.

Dr. Dako has also received international recognition for his public health expertise and work on artificial intelligence and medical informatics in underserved areas. As an example, he served on the Lancet Oncology Commission US Cancer Moonshot 2.0 as Chair of the Technology, Digital Health and AI section. Through his work as a researcher and program leader he has proven his ability to secure funding from diverse sources, including the Google Foundation, RSNA and NIH. Throughout his career, he has collaborated with colleagues across government, private, and academic sectors and institutions, and has worked in partnership with colleagues from over a dozen different nations.

RECENT GLOBAL HEALTH PROJECTS

I led the installation of a Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) and Artificial Intelligence image interpretation solution in a tertiary hospital in Nigeria

I co-direct the Penn Radiology Global Health Imaging Case Competition focused on trainees in LMICs

Selected Publications

Dako F, Moraes FY, Doo F, Abed M, Anazodo U, Patrick L, Favorito FM, Fouad E, Alabi A, Avery S, Scott A, Ngwa W, Hricak H. Digital health and artificial intelligence innovations for oncology in sub-Saharan Africa. Lancet Oncol. 2025;26(10):e547–57. doi:10.1016/S1470-2045(25)00360-2

Leitão CA, de Oliveira Salvador GL, Idowu BM, Dako F. Drivers of global health care worker migration. J Am Coll Radiol. 2024;21(8):1188-1193. doi:10.1016/j.jacr.2024.03.005

Singh S, Elahi A, Schweitzer A, Adekanmi A, Atalabi O, Mollura DJ, Dako F. Deploying artificial intelligence for thoracic imaging around the world. J Am Coll Radiol. 2023;20(9):859-862. doi:10.1016/j.jacr.2023.06.024

Olawole T, Oyetunde T, Uzomah U, Shanahan J, Hartmann K, Rotimi S, Dako F. Exploring the state of cancer imaging research in Africa. J Am Coll Radiol. 2024;21(8):1216-1221. doi:10.1016/j.jacr.2024.04.009

Zenk M, Baid U, Pati S et al. Towards fair decentralized benchmarking of healthcare AI algorithms with the Federated Tumor Segmentation (FeTS) challenge. Nat Commun. 2024;15:1164. doi:10.1038/s41467-024-45365-6. PMID: 38362281.

Omisore AD, Odedeyi AA, Famurewa OC, Aderibigbe AS, Akinsulore RY, Adeyemi FM, Adisa AF, Orji EC, Ayeni AI, Towoju AG, Mango VL, Bryce Y, Omoyiola OZ, Edelweiss M, Dako F, Alatise OI, Kingham PT, Sutton EJ. Establishing Interventional Radiology in a Low-Resource Setting: Lessons From Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospitals Complex, Nigeria. JCO Glob Oncol. 2025 Jul;11:e2400637. doi:10.1200/GO-24-00637. PMID: 40591901

Adewole M, Rudie JD, Gbadamosi A, Zhang D, Raymond C, Ajigbotoshso J, Toyobo O, Aguh K, Omidiji O, Akinola R, Suwaid MA, Emegoakor A, Ojo N, Kalaiwo C, Babatunde G, Ogunleye A, Gbadamosi Y, Iorpagher K, Onuwaje M, Betiku B, Cakmak J, Menze B, Baid U, Bakas S, Dako F, Fatade A, Anazodo UC. The BraTS-Africa Dataset: Expanding the Brain Tumor Segmentation Data to Capture African Populations. Radiol Artif Intell. 2025 Jul;7(4):e240528. doi:10.1148/ryai.240528. PMID:40237600.

Tripathi S, Alkhulaifat D, Muppuri M, Elahi A, Dako F. Large Language Models for Global Health Clinics: Opportunities and Challenges. J Am Coll Radiol. 2025 Aug;22(8):917-923. doi:10.1016/j.jacr.2025.04.007. Epub 2025 Apr 30. PMID:40204164. Review.

Mumuni AN, Eyre K, Montalba C, Harrison A, Maharjan S, Botwe F, Garcia MF, Zeraii A, Friedrich MG, Fatade A, Ntusi NAB, Lim T, Garg R, Umair M, Ninalowo HA, Adeleke S, Anosike C, Dako F, Anazodo UC. Scan With Me: A Train-the-Trainer Program to Upskill MRI Personnel in Low- and Middle-Income Countries. J Am Coll Radiol. 2024 Aug;21(8):1222-1234. doi:10.1016/j.jacr.2024.04.026. Epub 2024 May 17. PMID:38763442.

Lugossy AM, Anton K, Dako F, Dixon RG, DuCharme PA, Duggan C, Durand MA, Einstein SA, Elahi A, Kesselman A, Kulinski LF, Mango VL, Pollack EB, Scheel JR, Schweitzer A, Svolos P, Wetherall M, Mollura DJ. Building Radiology Equity: Themes from the 2023 RAD-AID Conference on International Radiology and Global Health. J Am Coll Radiol. 2024 Aug;21(8):1194-1200. doi:10.1016/j.jacr.2024.04.025. Epub 2024 May 18. PMID:38763441. Review.

Anazodo, U. C., Ng, J. J., Ehiogu, B., Obungoloch, J., Fatade, A., Mutsaerts, H. J., ... & Dako, F. (2022). A framework for advancing sustainable magnetic resonance imaging access in Africa. NMR in Biomedicine, e4846.

Pati S, Baid U, Edwards B, Sheller M, Wang SH, Reina GA, Foley P, Gruzdev A, Karkada D, Davatzikos C, Sako C, Dako F…..Bakas S. Federated learning enables big data for rare cancer boundary detection. Nature communications. 2022 Dec 5;13(1):7346.

Matsumoto MM, Anton K, Dixon R, DuCharme PA, Kesselman A, Dako F. Building a Team: Perspectives of Radiology Staff on Global Health Work. Journal of Radiology Nursing. 2023 Jan 6.

 Elahi A, Dako F, Zember J, Ojetayo B, Gerus DA, Schweitzer A, Mollura DJ, Awan O. Overcoming Challenges for Successful PACS Installation in Low-Resource Regions: Our Experience in Nigeria. Journal of Digital Imaging. 2020 Jun 3.

 Averill SL, Dako F, Pollard JH. Medical Ethics in Global Health Radiology. In Radiology in Global Health 2019 (pp. 35-47). Springer, Cham.

 Mollura DJ, Soroosh G, Culp MP, Averill S, Axelrod D, Baheti A, Battino G, Buchanan K, Bueno J, Dako F, Desperito E. 2016 RAD-AID conference on international radiology for developing countries: gaps, growth, and United Nations sustainable development goals. Journal of the American College of Radiology. 2017 Jun 1;14(6):841-7.

 Mollura DJ, Culp MP, Battino G,...Dako F. Artificial Intelligence in Low and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs): Innovating Global Health Radiology. Radiology. Accepted July 7, 2020

Jalloul M, Derbew HM, Miranda-Schaeubinger M, De Leon Benedetti L, Mekete Y, Jr Carbajal JA, Doherty M, Noor A, Dako F, Otero HJ. Case competition sessions: a global education and academic engagement tool. Pediatr Radiol. 2023 Aug 3. doi: 10.1007/s00247-023-05723-5. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 37535093.

Last Updated: 01 October 2025