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PROFILE BY DEMOLA QUADRI, INTERVIEW BY CLASS AND USAFRICAONLINE PUBLISHER, CHIDO NWANGWU
Dr. Augustine Olisa Chudi Egbunike is a practicing physician and an international businessman. He graduated from Texas State University with a B.S. Biology /Chemistry in 1979 and received his Doctor of Medicine degree from American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine in 1983. He is a recipient of three prestigious medical awards in the United States - Resident Scholar Award by Burroughs Wellcome, Community Preceptor Award by Society of Teachers of Family Medicine and Baylor College of Medicine Community Preceptor Award.
Egbunike was medical director, Ramsey Cluster Unit at the University of Texas Medical Branch Correctional Managed Care between 1997 and 2001 where he was actively involved in the use of telemedicine to deliver specialized medical care to prison inmates from the specialist teaching hospital located several miles away in Galveston, Texas, USA.
Telemedicine is the use of telecommunication technology for medical diagnosis and patient care when the provider and client are separated by distance. In 1994, the University of Texas Medical Branch formed a partnership with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to provide managed health care for prison inmates.
Egbunike's work as a physician in the United States stimulated his interest in using telemedicine to meet the healthcare needs of the rural community in Nigeria. In 2002, he bought the master franchise right of Quik Internet, Nigeria (Internet Service Provider) from Quik International, U.S.A as a first step towards fulfilling his goal of introducing telemedicine to the healthcare industry in Nigeria - using technology to bridge the digital divide. Quik Internet Nigeria began providing Internet services to individual subscribers and corporations in 2005.
Egbunike owns a family clinic in Houston, Texas and he is chairman of Teleglobe Communications, owners of Quik Internet, Nigeria
Egbunike is a founding member of the Nigerian International Franchise Association (NIFA). He was vice president of the association, 2002 to 2006 and was elected president in April, 2006. He is a strong advocate for the development of franchising in Nigeria.
CLASS INTERVIEW
CLASS: You are championing a major project in Nigeria on telemedicine, tell us about the project?
Dr. Egbunike: Indeed, there is a proposal, plan and partnership with a major communication outfit in Nigeria for launching a telemedicine platform that will revolutionized health care as we know it in Nigeria. Quik Internet will provide the content while the telecommunication outfit will provide data center all over the country. Fiber optic cable is being laid through the major cities in Nigeria and wireless communications will be used to link the rural areas. Bandwidth will be available to support the high-speed Internet necessary for the delivery of data, voice and video. Telemedicine, which is the use of information technology to deliver health care where distance is a problem, has proved to be useful and economically beneficial in developing countries where medical resources are limited.
CLASS: Who is involved and what is the scope?
Dr. Egbunike: Due to market positioning issues and because the partnership contract has not been officially signed, I will defer from the name of the company at this time but on or before the first quarter of 2008, there will be a press briefing by the companies involved. The scope will eventually be continental wide. Consider this, there are more Senegalese physicians in Chicago than in the entire country of Senegal. What we are trying to do is to convert part of that brain drain into brain gain by leveraging the use of technology.
Can you even begin to imagine the impact on Nigerian healthcare system if the five thousand Nigerian physicians in the USA and Canada will participate in healthcare delivery in Nigeria through the use of Telemedicine?
CLASS: Why is Telemedicine so important?
Dr. Egbunike: It is important because it has been very successful in most countries in which it was introduced and for us it is part of bridging the digital divide. America has the technology, know how, and the resources. Africa definitely has limited resources.
What we have tried to do is to introduce a time tested way of delivering health care in areas of limited health care resources (rural area in America, military industrial complex, and America?s prison system) into Africa and adapting the same into those countries in Africa namely (Senegal, Gambia, Nigeria, Benin and Gabon) where we believed it will be beneficial to the population.
CLASS: You have recently placed your efforts across the two continents of Africa and the U.S; what should we know about the parts of Africa you put professional time and here in Houston, Texas?
Dr. Egbunike: Senegal, Gambia, Nigeria, Benin and Gabon. I am also in private practice in Houston. Prior to all these I was a National Institute of Health (NIH) fellow in Hypertension (2 years fellowship) and had also been the Medical Director of the Ramsey Prison Unit (5000 inmates) where Telemedicine was used extensively in delivering health care to inmates (prisoners) to everyone?s satisfaction.
CLASS: What health issues are common and still problematic in Nigeria?
Dr. Egbunike: Malaria, sanitation issues, HIV/ AIDS, cancer and diseases associated with our acculturation to western ways of life / industrialization.
CLASS: What can individuals do to improve their own health and wellness indicators?
Dr. Egbunike: remember this, what you eat is what you are. You start with diet, then exercise (not for everyone) and the follow-up with good health maintenance.
CLASS: What is the vibe about preventive medicine, and why should we care?
Dr. Egbunike: Health should not be addressed only when people are sick but should be a continuous and ongoing process through diet, exercise and addressing health maintenance issues. It is always cheaper to practice preventive care than sick care.
CLASS: Your wife is also a medical doctor. How do you plan your busy schedules and run the clinic? Tell us about your pretty hardworking wife?
Dr. Egbunike: My wife is a 1983 graduate of the University of Ibadan. She is a family physician by training and works at a community health center in Houston. However, to be frank with you, it has been very challenging trying to maintain such a hectic schedule. After all, one should always remember that medicine, besides being a noble profession, is also a calling.
CLASS: Your children ? born here in the U.S.- are known to be very fluent in the Onisha Igbo Language?
Dr. Egbunike: We started early to teach them the language and to make corrections when appropriate. The language is their heritage and it is priceless. I tell my sons that ones culture is like the compass of a ship or airplane. If you lose it, some part of your spiritual makeup as a human being dies with it regardless of your education.
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