International Institutes of Advanced Research and Training, Owerri, Nigeria.
Chidicon
Medical Center
Our Mission
Our goal is to build a Chidicon Medical Center system of hospitals
and research facilities with focus on excellence in research and
technology development founded on deep spirituality based on the
"Sanctity of Life", We focus on
| | Healthcare Services
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| | Research and Technology Development
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| | Charities |
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New Chidicon Medical Center Complex
The New Chidicon Medical Center, is currently under construction
in Owerri, Nigeria and would provide a state-of-the-art facility for
clinical services and research. It is one of the seven hospitals to
be completed from 2010-2020.
Our Vision
Our vision is to provide healthcare services in the Chidicon Medical
System of hospitals that will meet the needs of millions of
Nigerians who need specialized care that until now has
necessitated overseas treatment. We aim to capture the major
share of the overseas treatment market estimated at two billion
US dollars annually funded by overseas remittances.
Waiting area
Our Goals
Our goal is to build an ultra-modern medical center that will take
care of the tertiary health needs of Nigerians, by implementing
cutting-edge medical technology currently sort for overseas, by
many patients. We intend to capture at least 50% of the market
share in the next 5 years of all overseas treatment referrals. We
intend to setup a health care system comprising a network of ultra-
modern hospitals.
The Need for a New Health System
In 2006, Nigeria’s population estimate was 140 million with a
growth rate of 2.4%. While Nigeria has a birth rate of 40.6 births
per 1000, the infant mortality rate is 98.8 deaths per thousand live
births with a life expectancy of 46.7 years. The statistics are poor
due to the poor state of health care facilities especially at the
secondary and tertiary levels. The government funding of health
care services at these levels is low. However, both private and
government expenditure on health care is very high, but most of the
business is taken overseas. Although no official data was
released, several critics have placed both State and Federal
Government expenditure on medical tourism to outside the country
at about $360 million US dollars annually. Recently, the
government has issued warnings that it will ban oversea treatment
referrals for government employees. It has also been estimated by
the World Bank from data obtained from bank to bank wire
transfers that as of 1997, $2 billion US dollars was remitted by
Nigerians in the Diaspora. Unofficial estimates put remittances
from private sources to about $8 billion US dollars annually. Over
75% of the remittances were prompted by immediate health
needs. The scenario is not any different in other West African
countries and across Africa, the expenditure on healthcare
provision for those at home accounts for most of the $75 billion
dollars of remittances annually. Regrettably, these funds do not
realize the health goals, and hence go wasted in elaborate burial
ceremonies and in some cases are used to pay for travel related
expenses for medical tourism elsewhere in Europe, America and
more recently India and South Africa. It could be substantiated that
Nigeria both from private and government, spend about $2.5 billion
US dollars on medical tourism to Europe and America each year.
However, the changing dynamics of overseas travel first due to
September 11th, and now due to July 7th, London bombings, and
restriction of visa issuance is redirecting medical tourism to South
Africa and India. India has forecasted to take in about $2 billion US
dollars by 2012 from medical tourism, of which 30% may come
from Nigeria within the next two years, given the pace of growth. It
is a great business opportunity to capture this internal market by
building a medical center that will meet these healthcare needs of
Nigerians.
The Chidicon Heathcare System
Since 1993, Chidicon Medical Center and the International
Institutes of Advanced Research and Training (IIART) have
implemented a strategic plan. The goals were first to introduce
Western styled diagnostic evidence-based medicine and to gauge
local African acceptability, estimate cost implications given local
budget, establish community-based referral system, perfect
models for maximizing efficiency and productivity of local staff,
establish international reputation in research based medicine at
least in a few areas. These goals have been achieved in the past
ten years with amazing success. We have a good community-
based care system, a motivated local staff, and excellence in
medical science research. Our goal is to implement a
comprehensive healthcare program that includes three
components:
- public and professional health education
- scientific research
- high quality healthcare insurance
Our services would be covered under the health insurance
scheme offered by our associates or under fee-for-service. We will
also have a web-based system which allows a relative from
abroad to pay for services using a major credit card. Web-based
insurance premium payments will be implemented for local care
as well.
The Chidicon Health Insurance System
Our health insurance scheme would begin first with accidental
insurance, then routine comprehensive health insurance coverage
Worldwide, in collaboration with major health insurance providers
in the US and Europe. A system would be arranged that would
make it possible for tourists to use our scheme and for Nigerians
using our scheme to access overseas treatment in our
partnership hospitals. The CMC Universe card for health
insurance would be valid everywhere. We also intend to expand on
success of the present project. As from 2010-2020, we intend to
build 7 major hospitals, one in each of the 6 six geopolitical zones
of Nigeria and the capital Abuja. At this point in our growth, we
could actualize our plan for a country wide accidental and tourist
health insurance system based on air-assist and evacuation by
2020. The revenue from 2020 - 2025 would near $1 billion US
dollars annually, and expansion would be funded through the
capital market in Nigeria and Europe, via initial public offering. To
realize these goals there is need for partnership with financial
institutions bank and major medical equipment manufacturers.
Our Specific Goals
The present venture would expand our micro-level development
and improve in:
- Areas where CMC healthcare excels
- Clinical outcomes being on par with the world’s best
centers.
- Internationally qualified and experienced doctors.
- Technological edge.
- Competitive costs - 1/5th to 1/10th of costs in the West.
- Quality of service.
- No waiting time.
- Patient-centric care.
- Exotic experience, increasing popularity as a tourist
destination.
- African healthcare wisdom along with the expertise of
western medicine.
- Areas where CMC healthcare has to focus.
- International accreditation norms to be adopted by our
hospital.
- Hospital must conform to a code of ethics.
- Provision of a uniform price band for major specialties,
especially for health insurance majors.
- Handling of medico-legal issues.
- Medical Missions to the Poor
Public and Professional Health Education
We intend to develop western standards by further expanding
scientific and clinical relations with western university medical
centers. With the same facilities in place, faculty exchanges will be
possible. We will host the West African Postgraduate Medical
College training programs. We will establish extensive referral
links and also a recruitment pool. We will incorporate a public
television health channel that shows health based TV drama
analogous to "Emergency Room" - ER in the USA, but is based in
the premises of Chidicon Medical Center here in Nigeria. We will
show complex operation procedures including open heart surgery
and neurosurgery. We will embark on health risk factor education.
We will make money through TV ads of over-the-counter drugs with
major pharmaceutical companies. We will also work with NGOs to
promote their health related programs. Our programs will be
transmitted locally and via free to air satellite TV obtainable across
West Africa.
Scientific Research
Our medical center will work with other universities, to provide
sites for recruitment of subjects for cutting-edge medical
developments, in multi-center ethically approved clinical trials in
Africa. We will work with other universities in Western Europe and
America, to have investigator recruitment centers for cross-cultural
investigations and trials of new breakthrough therapies. Our
slogan is 'if it is NEW and is GOOD, you would FIRST HEAR IT
FROM US'. Our own proprietary developments, would gradually
form a major source of funding for our medical center, and would
aid our expansion, research and technology developments. We
are currently developing nanotechnology solutions, specifically
nanoscale copolymer assembles for drug targeting. We hold
several international patents on ultrasound solutions for medicine
and space-based technologies. We are forging ahead with new
drugless solutions for major ailments. We will continue our
research tradition by hosting the International Institutes of
Advanced Research and Training (IIART). IIART has in the past ten
years become a leading research center in neurological sciences
and also space medicine. We will host joint international
conferences. The CMC multipurpose auditorium will become a
site for all major scientific conferences in the West African sub-
region, thus generating the international exposure the center
needs for positioning itself as a center for high quality healthcare
services. Our partnership with the Federal University of Technology
Owerri and Imo State University in the Imo Research Triangle is
fast leading to a SCI-TECH revolution in health sciences in
Nigeria. Our partnership in Application of Remote Sensing (RS)
and Geographic Information System (GIS) Technologies is yielding
innovative strategies for control of diarrhea, malaria,
onchocerciasis and filariasis. Our United States patented
probabilistic layer analysis on the platform of GIS and RS has
become the gold standard in risk management worldwide. We
intend to implement our United States patented neural network
solution for modeling for biological and ecological systems for
large scale control of vector-borne disease and for assessment of
the effects of climate change.
High Quality Health Care
As stated above, CMC would develop the health service as a
network with outlets at all university teaching hospitals in Nigeria,
in separate partnership programs. Our center would provide
diagnostic support for their services. We would establish referral
offices in all major university teaching hospitals, and network with
the doctors to arrange transport for any patient requiring an
imaging examination, a specialist operation or other health
issues. We have planned for air-evacuation that would be routed to
the Owerri Airport and then via our helicopter air-assist to our
center.
Conference Room
Nursing station
Executive suite
Operation room
MRI
X-ray
Angiography
Chidicon Medical Center
The Technology to Know The Sympathy to Care
Ultrasound
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