"Medical entrepreneurship is going to be more impactful on our future than any other industry."
The future of medical specialty development in Ghana is private. The top killers of Ghanaians in the productive age bracket are optimally treated by specialists. Medical entrepreneurship is going to be more impactful on our future than any other industry.
I am privileged to contribute my quota in the fastest growing surgical specialty: neurosurgery. There are only 26 neurosurgeons for 36 million people in Ghana, but the top killers of young people at the moment include conditions that need neurosurgeons for good outcomes. Lifestyle changes with attendant increased motor vehicular movement and sedentariness, have pushed hypertensive haemorrhage and traumatic brain injury into the top causes of mortality for a young population.
Ghana has the special privilege in our subregion, of being a go-to place for all West Africa. Developing a medical industry therefore, is mainly for a market that is West Africa-wide and not limited to our borders. This profitability therefore, bypasses the economic variables that our country has, because compensation for this service is usually going to be in dollars. The medical industry therefore has the potential to bring in foreign exchange with minimal input, because most of the infrastructure and personnel needed to develop high end specialty medical care exists.
"Entrepreneurs must invest into advocacy that tells the story of good health care in ways that big business finds inviting."
Small, agile surgical specialty centres are the way to go for now. Advocacy for philanthropists who can use corporate initiative to fund specific disease interventions and research, reduces the financial burdens on these centres, freeing practitioners to hone their craft and to train.
The difficulty with capital in Ghana springs from an economy in which the government has crowded out formal businesses, overwhelming investors with tax regimes that mandate returns in irrespective of profit or loss. There is a general apprehension with funding especially greenfield projects, but this is mainly fueled by ignorance about the profitability of health, and the dire picture of zero progress portrayed by public hospitals.
Entrepreneurs must invest into advocacy that tells the story of good health care in ways that big business finds inviting. In addition, advocacy must delve into the hearts of a public that is used to putting more of their money into the funeral industry than into healthcare. The message of specialised health care and its impact must be amplified, to compete with the deafening sound of herbalist and charlatans.
I produce a radio programme which is dedicated to health, and is the only 30 minute session of its type in prime time on a breakfast show of a major station in Accra. It is self-financed at the moment and delves into the science of medicine, explaining various trends of medical practice, and the implications of lifestyle and behaviour on health and wellness. It is a rewarding period of the week and a lot of interesting discussions on multiple health matters focus on the power of knowledge of health matters. Generating an awareness of the power of good health care is important fuel for an ecosystem of wellness.
As much as training is needed for curative medicine, even more attention must be put on the preventive aspects that ensure minimal expenditure for optimal health. In an environment where very little structure exists for institutions to optimise health care delivery, it is important that entrepreneurs build ecosystems that sustain centres of excellence that treat illness in capital efficient ways.
"Banks need to innovate and engage with specialists to transform healthcare into a value-generating business."
Financing medical specialty care is the biggest challenge. Banks must find new ways of engaging specialists to form multidisciplinary groups which can function as businesses, using healthcare to generate value.
A lot of the money that is being invested into health care at the moment, especially in the private sector, is put into building and equipping, and not enough is put into human resource development. This wrong prioritisation of capital investment creates medical shells with the word hospital inscribed on their outer walls, devoid of social impact. There are all kinds of explanations given for this vacuum of care, top among these is the lack of money.
The true reasons however lie somewhere between a lack of innovation for human resource management and a lack of knowledge of the principles that prosper medical technology into well oiled machines that make more money than entire countries. There is a role in this process that only medical professionals can play. There are certain trends in medical treatment and its industry that only practitioners can identify and capitalise on.
Only in such partnerships can capital injection be harnessed for growth of medical services which meet a significant need in ways that can be monetised. Only such partnerships will bring the capital and the expertise together in synergistic ways that create value. Our banking sector must grow and evolve to see healthcare in new ways. Only the weapons industry is bigger than the healthcare industry in the developed world. Our banks must investigate the reasons why, and actualise this success in our context.
About the author
DR TEDDY TOTIMEH
Consultant Neurosurgeon, Lucca Health Medical Centre
Dr Teddy Totimeh is a Consultant Neurosurgeon and Medical Director at Lucca Health, specialising in paediatric neurosurgery. He trained at the University of Ghana and Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, with a fellowship at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital. He is an advocate for neurosurgery across Africa, holding leadership roles in organisations like the International Society of Paediatric Neurosurgery, and serves as a Senior Lecturer in Neuroanatomy.
