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By Rita Okoye
Odinaka Kingsley Eze, a second-year Ph.D. student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), plans to use his doctoral research in the history of medicine/medical anthropology and telemedicine start-up and social enterprise to address the issue of Nigeria’s medical brain drain.
After one year in the famous college town of Cambridge, Massachusetts, Mr. Eze has already adopted the MIT motto, mens et manus, a Latin phrase which translates to “mind and hand,” in his academic endeavor. I first got to know Mr. Eze two years ago, right after his master’s graduation on May 12, 2023, which stirred up the Nigerian X space (formerly Twitter) with over eight thousand engagements. His friend and fellow college student, Ifechidere (@Ifechideere), had featured him on her page, highlighting his stellar academic success at the University of Mississippi, which earned him a fully funded scholarship to MIT, where he served as a Presidential Fellow during his first year. Two years down the line, I reencountered him in April 2025 while covering the activities of the Association of Nigerian Physicians in the Americas (ANPA) during their medical mission at Oba Elegushi’s Palace. He informed me that his involvement with ANPA was a combination of his ongoing research and entrepreneurial engagements as the co-founder of Homnics.
A student of MIT’s program in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology, and Society (HASTS), Odinaka is exploring the impact of transmigratory politics in the circulation of medical expertise. When I inquired about his current scholarship and its connection with his entrepreneurial journey, Odinaka stated thus: “Broadly speaking, my Ph.D. research explores the postcolonial medical history of Nigeria and its diasporic connections. To be precise, I am interested in the transnational contributions of the Nigerian medical diaspora in the primary health care system of the United States of America and Nigeria. With over 70 percent of Black doctors in the US being Nigerians, representing over 4,000 Nigerian physicians, the patient-to-doctor ratio in Nigeria has continued to widen. According to World Health Organization recommendation, one doctor should serve 600 patients, however, in Nigeria one doctor serves between 4,000 – 10, 000 patients due to the massive exodus of physicians from the country which has a historic root in the Nigerian Civil War (1967 -1970) and the 1980s Structural Adjustment Program, However, I was also interested in the practical question: What can we do to mitigate the impact of medical brain drain in Nigeria? It was in this process that I started nurturing the idea of a telemedicine platform and ultimately joining a fantastic team of four to co-found Homnics.”
So, tell me more about your role in Homnics? “Shortly after joining Homnics as a co-founder, I informed ANPA about my entrepreneurial journey and the possibilities of working with them. Given my research interest in the Nigerian medical diaspora, I have been studying ANPA as an association, exploring their contributions both in the United States and in Nigeria as part of my dissertation. Therefore, introducing them to Homnics and our objectives was relatively straightforward. ANPA has also established a decades-long tradition of giving back to Nigeria through its annual medical missions, and working with them has proven fantastic. I took charge of the product development with the ANPA technical committee for the 2025 medical mission. Homnics had developed an EMR system prior, but it was not adaptable to the unique conditions of the mission. Working closely with physicians and other team members, I conducted the qualitative research that went into the development of the new EMR system before building out the architecture. I worked closely with my team through the product design phase and development. So, I was excited when we finally launched the product in April. Following this launch, I am already conducting further research on how to improve it for the next medical mission, taking into consideration the experiences of users, both physicians and patients.”
But how exactly does this solve the problem of brain drain? “With this EMR system and the virtual consultation option, we hope to partner with the primary health centers where most of these patients are receiving care and be able to conduct transnational follow-up care. Most ANPA physicians are ready to do this but have been restricted due to distance. Homnics’ EMR and virtual consultation platform are already making this vision a reality. With more than 50 physicians already onboarded, the hundreds of patients on the platform can access physicians and follow up after missions. Previously, when any digital platform did not power consultations during a mission, this was impossible. But with the integration of EMR and virtual consultation, the absence of Nigerian physicians in Nigeria does not mean they cannot bridge the patients-to-doctor ratio in Nigeria. And we are already working on how to expand beyond the mission.”
Indeed, Mr. Eze is re-envisioning health care in Nigeria through his research by building a platform that allows Nigerian patients to receive treatment from diaspora doctors. In the global space, this will be the future of health care provision, especially during periods of public health emergency, as witnessed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Building a platform that systematizes patients’ data in Nigeria allows for easier access and collection of relevant health information necessary for global health security.
