A new beginning.

It's been almost a year since I posted anything on this blog, and what a rather difficult year it's been. I have had to reorganize my goals and to strategize a new path for the future. At this point, I feel there is definitely a light at the end of this particularly tortuous tunnel and I am thankful for that. Usually writing is one of my most basic coping mechanisms and an outlet for stress, but over the last year it's not been easy for me to articulate my thoughts and ideas to the point where I felt comfortable publishing them. That is basically why my blog has been inactive for so long, however I am in the process of committing myself to reactivating it.
The fundamental purpose of this blog is to retell actual stories based on my experience as a physician in my home country of Nigeria. To express the joys and the sorrows, the thrills and the frustrations of working to save lives and to keep people healthy under conditions of sometimes extreme deprivation and limitation of resources. The textbooks we study in medical school are written by experts in first world countries usually USA, UK and Canada. However, the conditions and the problems we actually face in the field are very unique to the third world. Just making the transition from basic medical sciences to clinical studies, one runs into the brick wall of reality. The average clinical student quickly finds that there is a huge disconnect between the theoretical practice of medicine in the textbooks and the practicalities of life on the wards of a standard Nigerian teaching hospital. Even more terrifying is the leap of faith one has to take from being a medical student to a greenhorn physician who has to assume actual responsibilities in making life and death decisions. I will attempt lay out in vivid terms the realities of practicing medicine in an environment where there is very often no obvious standard of care and no functional system of feedback and improvement. It is necessary for one to develop a unique streak of ingenuity independent of the system in order to enjoy any meaningful success and find fulfillment in ones practice.
There is no doubt that health-care systems all over the world have their own unique set of problems and challenges. The recent efforts to overhaul the health insurance system in the US is a case in point. In Nigeria the problem with health-care stems from lack, here in the States it is a result of excess. If American trained medical students were required to do part of their training in a third world country, I'm pretty sure that the costs of health-care will come down dramatically. Imagine a scenario where you have to regularly ask your patients how much they can afford before writing a prescription. Or one in which a substantial deposit must be demanded before hospital admissions, even in the most dire emergencies. The challenge of tailoring treatment to a client's wallet without substantially compromising quality is one that is faced by every physician in the developing world. The more industrialized and less industrialized countries have a lot to learn from each other in the area of heath-care delivery.
I will endeavor to make my posts from hereon much more brief than the previous three posts. Intermittently, I will post my opinions of health related issues on the global scene. I will really appreciate any kind of feedback from readers as this encourages me to continue to put my ideas out there. If and when you read any posts on this blog please leave a comment if only to let me know you were here. I hope you will find my stories interesting and informative. Enjoy.