Dr Chinonso Egemba is a medical doctor cum digital content creator. He speaks with Shade Wesley-Metibogun about his passion for helping people and creating educative contents. Excerpts:
How and when did your journey into digital content creation start?
It started in 2013. I was still a medical student at the time. I met an old man, who was about 65 years-old. He came into the hospital with a transient stroke, a non-permanent stroke. As a student, we took him to the doctor, who attended to him and taught him how to prevent another attack.
Two years later, I met the man again. I was preparing for my final exam. He suffered another stroke and didn’t make it. This got me thinking. Was it that he did not understand all that the doctor spent several hours trying to explain to him? I did some research and found out that a lot of people don’t really understand what illness is, how to prevent it and how to live. I decided to use the skill that I had at that point, which was graphic design, to pass messages to people on Facebook. Here we are now.
Would you say that you have achieved some of the goals you had in mind when you started content creation?
Oh yes. There is an improvement in terms of knowledge, attitude and practice towards healthcare in general. We are yet to determine how much improvement has been achieved. One of our goals is to run a research and feel the temperature, as well as to ask if most people’s knowledge of health care and practice has improved. But I think that, based on random responses, the answer is yes.
How do you develop concepts for your content?
We develop content based on first experience. What is the first experience with patients? The kind of questions they ask me. I just figured out that if one person can ask this question, quite a lot of people will want to know more about it. We also run polls to find out what the average man on the street thinks about certain issues. Based on the feedback we get, then we have an idea of the prevailing knowledge about such issues. If it is wrong, we demystify it. If it is right, we reinforce that knowledge. Basically, we listen a lot to people and find out what is going on with them and create content.
What do you consider to be your most significant content and why?
Honestly, I may not be able to determine exactly what content is most significant. This is because different things appeal to different people at different times. I have noticed that people who are between 25 and 34 years constitute the bulk of my target audience. So issues surrounding sexual health, conception, family planning and how to prevent communicable diseases are some of the things they are interested in knowing.
Do you have plans to include content that people who are above 40 years might be interested in?
Yes, of course. Like I said, they constitute the bulk of the audience, but that does not mean we don’t have content for them. We have created one about living with diabetes and caring for people in that category. We partner with companies committed to geriatric care. We also create content to cater to the older generation. No one is left out.
You always use certain names in your content. Are they imaginary names or do you have certain people bearing such names that need to hear the message?
No, the major tactic is story telling. People connect to stories. They can relate better and remember it easily. One of the things about stories is that they have characters. In my story, Nkechi, Emeka are characters. People can easily relate with them and this makes it easier to personalise them. When I am talking to them, I tell them Nkechi is my long-lost girlfriend and Emeka was the person who snatched her from me, just to make the story relatable.
How did you come about the nickname, Aproko doctor?
It was purely by chance. We were looking for something that would stick, something that would attract attention. We didn’t want the traditional image of a medical doctor dressed in a laboratory coat with a stethoscope hanging around his neck and sitting in an office. That is the kind of image they have been exposed to all these while. We wanted a doctor who could tell anything and everything. A doctor they joke and laugh with.
Most of the time, what I do is basically community engagement with wonderful research and proposals in medicine, but we need to have a way to communicate it with a layman on the street. Nigeria has a peculiar population. It is not like the American or the British population. As a result, we had to break down the information in such a way that people would understand.
Somebody asked what I would like to name myself and another person suggested Aproko doctor, that is, a doctor that never minds his business. The name stuck. It is relatable, although not everyone will like it. Some people believe a doctor shouldn’t relate with people the way I do, but they are not the kind of people I have in mind. The layman on the street and the traders in the market are the kind of people I want to reach out to. Those are the people who accept Aproko doctor.
What advice do you have for up-and-coming digital content creators?
Content creators, regardless of their niche, should try to solve a problem. If you are not solving a problem, there is a probability that it will not last. Choose your community or the people who will make up your community. When you have done that, you will be able to rise above the noise and bypass those who do not accept you. I say this because when I started there was quite a lot of criticism, even from medical doctors who felt that a doctor should not be speaking the way I was doing. Why is a doctor talking as if he doesn’t understand good English? Why is he making these things so simple and easy?
Communication is not complete if the other person does not understand it. Your style is your style. As much as possible, always try to improve on it. Don’t wait for inspiration to fall from heaven, most beautiful pieces of art are gotten from something else. Don’t be afraid to look at what others are doing.
As a child, did you always dream of becoming a doctor?
Yes. Funny enough, I was one of those kids who can be considered gifted. I could do anything and everything. Growing up, my father had many medical books in the house. One that struck me then was the book titled, ‘When there is no doctor’. Maybe he wanted me to be a doctor and that was his subtle way of making me develop interest in it.
I read a lot of those books as a teenager. When it was time to choose a career, I knew I would choose medicine. At the same time, I was also good in the arts, especially the performing arts. I could sing, draw and act. I was artistic in nature. Doing what I do now is a perfect match for that world. Yes, I have always wanted to be a doctor and I have always wanted to be creative.
What is your area of specialisation?
Before I started content creation, I was still in general practice. Going forward, I would like to specialise in Public Health and Communication.
Why make that choice?
Doing what I do requires research and ways of communication. I am a public doctor. I am the kind of doctor who should have access to everyone. If I don’t know how best to reach those people, I wouldn’t be performing my function, With public health, you can get to know people, what their needs are and new policies in that area. A public health practitioner interfaces with the public, there is research involved and communication is also involved. Whenever there is a vaccine introduced, it is the function of a Public Health Officer to see how those vaccines go to the public. For General Practitioners, they are in the hospital, they are bound by the four walls of the hospital but my major work as a Public Health Practitioner is on the street.
Research has shown that young children can also be diabetic. Can you throw more light on this?
Yes, it is true. There are two types of diabetes: Type 1 and Type 2. Type 1 occurs generally in younger people when the insulin responsible for regulating blood sugar is absent. It is mainly genetic. Some genes can be out of place or not properly introduced. As a result, the person may become diabetic.
Type 2 diabetes occurs out later in life and most of them are brought on probably by obesity, family history and all that. When there is insulin resistance, the body does not respond to insulin the way normal people respond to it. The body tissues are not affected by insulin the way it should. Because of this, blood tissue is not controlled as it should so that person develops diabetes type two.
Between content creation and medical practice, which one is your favourite and why?
What I am doing is a mix of both worlds. I successfully found a way to fuse my creative idea with medicine. It could be a very hard choice to make. I want to be creative and help as many people as I can with my medical practice.
Are you thinking of joining your colleagues who have relocated abroad?
If I ever move to another country, it will be on account of studying because I have realised that there is a problem and I am well positioned to solve the problem it. So I wouldn’t be relocating abroad except there is a widespread insecurity in the country and I have to flee to safety.
Do you think the Federal Government is totally to blame for the exodus of medical practitioners abroad?
I don’t know. I am not against the exodus of doctors from Nigeria. People will always do what is best for them. If people don’t feel a sense of need, they will most likely go where they are needed. The government can do better by making sure that we have better health care and remuneration.
In the budget that was proposed, some amounts were cut, and part of the area affected is the area of family planning. This is a country that has one of the highest rates of maternal mortality in the world. We cannot be in a country with this type of problem and still be cutting costs that can help solve them. Yes, the government can do better by allocating more and making sure that doctors are well appreciated.
How have you been able to keep the two sides of your life working without clashing?
I think it takes a lot of work, balancing and sacrifices but we have been able to balance it. Before, I used to look at it as work and life balance but now, I look at it as work and life integration. Rather than looking at balancing two separate parts of your life, you look at it as life integrating them so well that one is not affecting the other. You can do one while doing the other. The reason I have been able to balance it is because I have been able to integrate them. Life is work and work is life.
Now that they know you are a focused on creating content, do your patients still allow you to treat them?
Yes, more than ever. When I tell them that I am not available, they prefer to wait till I return. One thing that content creation has been able to do is to foster trust between members of the community and I. They know that I am outside sometimes, but they still trust me enough to believe that I wouldn’t use their case for content. Even when it is invincible, the identity is very secure. They have been watching me. It has been seven years and overtime, not one person has come out to say that this doctor violated the patient-doctor privilege. My patients trust me. Ours is a give-and-take relationship. Many of them want me to reach out to them.
What would you say has shaped you to be who you are today?
To be honest, they are many things. More important is the fact that as a child I was encouraged me to read. I do not come from a family that was very wealthy. I even tell people that I sold pap and akara on the streets of Lagos. I have always known that I needed to be creative, but growing up in hardship made me more creative. My background, parents, my friends have all shaped me to be who I am today.
What are you working on currently?
We started Hundred K Medical Club. It is a non-governmental organisation initiative. We started to help people who couldn’t pay their medical bills. We started with the help of a doctor friend of mine, Doctor Olawale Ogunlana. Overtime, we became better. We are focusing on a pediatric campaign. We screened 411 women for cervical cancer and treated about 71 of them who could have cervical cancer at an early stage. This was done in a makeshift tent. The next campaign we had was done to prevent prostate cancer. We screened about 100 men. Apart from giving people quality information about their health, we also give access to quality health.
How was growing up?
I grew up in a supportive family. We weren’t wealthy. I grew up knowing hardship, pain and loss. At some point, I was admitted to the hospital and we couldn’t pay the medical bill. So I know how it is like not to be able to pay medical bills and that is one of the reasons I started Hundred K Medical Club. Maybe when I am ready to give an expose on my family, I will speak more about it.
How is your wife doing?
She is fine and doing great. She is a wonderful woman. Chiamaka has been a great support in my life. She believed in me when every other person didn’t. She was the very first person I told what I wanted to do and how to do it. She told me that she believed in me. She saw what other people didn’t see. She is a chef by profession. One of her main goals is to get African dishes to be featured in continental cuisines. She has had major shows where she remakes African dishes to look like what would be served in a Five Star restaurant, Afro fusion. I married a dreamer and I am also a dreamer myself.
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