CARDIAC ELECTROPHYSIOLOGY
& PACING
(Cardiology Unit IV) - CMC VELLORE
Treating Abnormal Heart Rhythms
Dr.Rueben Kato
Mutagaywa
Cardiologist
It is a calling....
​Dr Reuben was born in a small village in the Lake zone of Tanzania, Kagera region. His parents were keen of education and always encouraged him to pursue higher level in academia. His dream was to fulfil those wishes and he has been always working on the same. He is a Transitioning Leader, Tutor, Mentor, Clinician and a Researcher whose interest is to improve health of poor communities. He is a believer of Global Health Equity.
Education & Work
He earned his Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree from the University of Dar es Salaam, followed by a Master of Medicine (MMed) in Internal Medicine and a Master of Science (MSc) in Cardiology from Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS) in Tanzania. He further specialized with a Fellowship in Cardiac Pacing at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, and completed his PhD in Cardiology at Utrecht University in the Netherlands.
He is an Associate Professor of Cardiology at MUHAS and a Consultant Cardiologist at the Jakaya Kikwete Cardiac Institute and Muhimbili Orthopedic Institute
Publications
Dr. Rueben has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=reuben+mutagaywa) and serves on the editorial board of JACC: Clinical Electrophysiology and BMC Cardiovascular Disorders. He represents the East Africa region on the Advisory Group of the International Society of Hypertension (ISH).
He is a member of several leading professional societies, including the Heart Rhythm Society (HRS), the European Heart Rhythm Association (EHRA), the Tanzania Cardiac Society, the Medical Association of Tanzania, and the Pan-African Society of Cardiology (PASCAR). He is also a Fellow of both the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) and the American College of Cardiology (ACC).
Passion for Electrophysiology
His passion in EP began in the early 2012 when he noticed that a significant number of patients he was attending were suffering from arrhythmias including Complete Heart Block and they were not aware of their disease condition. In early 2016 a call from PASCAR regarding Cardiac Pacing training for Africans at UCT under the late Prof Bongani Mayosi and Ashley Chin was released and he passed the interview and joined the training in 2017.
Indeed, in his publication on Unmet need in the management of arrhythmias in Africa (European Heart Journal (2022) 43, 2170–2172), Dr Reuben concluded that factors causing need-access gap include high medications/procedural costs, lack of adequate data for planning and policy development, and few trained doctors/technologists, among others. These gaps need to be addressed in a multidisciplinary approach involving governments, medical organizations, and industry. His ambition was therefore, to secure a place where he can pursue further training in EP in attempt to mitigate some of those factors.
He was interviewed for a training in Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology at Chrsitian Medical College (CMC) Vellore, India. He passed the interview and he is the first International Fellow to be awarded a this Fellowship Training. He joined the training in March 2025.
Until September 2025, he was serving as Treasurer and Executive Committee Member of the African Heart Rhythm Association (AFHRA). In recognition of his leadership and contributions to the field of EP, he was named a Growth and Leadership Opportunity for Black Electrophysiologists (GLOBE) Fellow by the HRS for the 2023–2024 cohort (https://youtu.be/0AYhvPziMuA?si=3P9R9YhIsAIvz3Pd).
The burden of arrhythmias in patients with Rheumatic Heart Disease (RHD) is huge (DOI: 10.1186/s12872-023-03427-0). Dr Reuben has worked extensively on RHD in Tanzania (https://dspace.library.uu.nl/handle/1874/430136). He has been involved in RHD missions: https://youtube.com/@moyolife-missions?si=KUiywnxgN7y_pQlY and Www.moyo.life. He is also a co-PI in major RHD studies namely PEN Plus
Project(https://journals.plos.org/globalpublichealth/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgph.0004552; https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38296295/) and Preventing Rheumatic Injury Biomarker Alliance: the Leducq (PRIMA) Network Project. While at CMC Vellore, he is expected to conduct a retrospective study on experience of managing arrhythmias among RHD by Catheter Ablation.
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His journey in Electrophysiology
Since he joined CMC, Dr Reuben has been cultivating knowledge and skills from the Cardiology IV unit (EP) team members that is lead by Prof. Dr. John Roshan Sir. Other EPs are Prof. Dr. Sirish Chandra Srinath Sir, Assoc Prof. Dr. Anand Manickavasagam, Assoc Prof. Dr. Hariharan Narasaiyan, and Assit. Prof Dr. Haynes Raja. When he goes back to Tanzania, Reuben will maintain a strong presence in clinical work at his affiliated institutions. He is expecting to work with fellow Tanzanians on evidence-based care of arrhythmias so as to transform care of patients with rhythm disorders in the country. Reuben says, being at CMC Vellore is a calling. He is learning, unlearning and relearning. He will stick to “Not to be ministered unto, but to minister”
Outside of work, he enjoys travelling, music, jogging, involvement in community activities, and literature
