Author: PositiveNaija
Emeka Okwara Launches http://www.mylivemd.com/
Emeka Okwara, a Nigerian Tech Executive in the United States launches innovative “LiveMD” Platform for patients in developing countries to search for and receive expert, highly-specialized care from licensed doctors around the world, by phone, video or text.
Patients can use the site (www.mylivemd.com) to search for doctors by specialty, qualification, language, patient ratings, and location. Then they can communicate directly with those doctors for a nominal fee.
Patients in developing countries like Nigeria, Kenya, and India routinely have to travel hours to a hospital or clinic, even for a non-life threatening emergency. Once they arrive they still have to wait for hours, just to talk to a doctor for a few brief minutes, and they pay a very high cost for that consultation. But with LiveMD, they can conveniently speak to a licensed, qualified doctor who gives them their full attention. Plus patients can do it at any time, from the comfort of their home or office, using a phone or computer. As Emeka Okwara, Founder and CEO of LiveMD, explains, “A patient in Lagos, Nigeria can talk to a cardiologist in the United States for the same amount they will spend on a plate of rice.”
Communication between doctors and patients can be done by phone, video chat, or text, or the patient can schedule a face-to-face appointment if that is preferable. LiveMD connects patients with doctors from the USA, UK, and other parts of the world without incurring any prohibitive long distance charges, and the entire LiveMD platform is localized to support all countries, time zones, and currencies. Payments to doctors can be processed safely and instantly via PayPal with all major credit cards, in more than 200 countries, including developing nations. All patient information is also carefully guarded with robust security protocols to ensure full compliance with HIPAA regulations.
Okwara, an accomplished technology executive, has spent almost two decades in the United States leading the delivery of world-class, multi-million dollar tech initiatives for companies including IBM, AT&T, and Delta Airlines. But to him the launch of LiveMD is also based on a personal passion to give back to communities in need. “I was raised in Nigeria,” he says, “and while living in the USA I have made significant contributions in industries including telecommunications, health care, and computer technology. Now my mission is to ensure that people living in Africa and other developing countries also have access to the best, state-of-the-art health care.”
LiveMD is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, USA but serves patients in developing countries. Licensed doctors wishing to join the LiveMD Global Medical Provider Network and offer medical consultation services to patients may submit applications at the LiveMD Website (www.mylivemd.com).
Dayo Olakulehin Designs Novel Ventilator [2016]
Dayo Olakulehin, the CEO of LigandCorp has developed a prototype of an innovative portable, battery-powered ventilator designed to assist unconscious patients breathe.
Manufactured in Canada, the innovation has been described by the Head of the Emergency Department at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, LUTH, as “a critical device that will significantly reduce infant and adult mortality rates and perhaps, the best thing to happen to resuscitation care in our environment.”
The novel medical device with the potential to save millions of lives all over the world, is the brainchild of Dayo Olakulehin, who in 2012, during his housemanship at the LUTH, had an idea for a medical device that could potentially save millions of lives worldwide. For four months, Dayo and his team worked relentlessly to develop the affordable device. Three years later, he founded LigandCorp, an organisation devoted to developing and promoting innovative medical devices that will create lasting health solutions in Africa and other developing nations.
LigandCorp’s innovation is expected to cost $300 apiece. Conventional ventilators cost $30,000 while low cost alternatives, which are still under development, are to sell for about $3,000.