A United States-based Assistant Professor of Family Medicine, Dr. Oyetokunbo Ibidapo-Obe, has encouraged Nigerian medical students to consider building a career in clinical-academic medicine to reposition the Nigerian healthcare ecosystem and to advance medical research outputs across the African continent. She stated this this during the first edition of the Oyetokunbo Ibidapo-Obe’s Medical Student Summit at the College of Medicine, University of Lagos (CMUL), which seeks to advance the longevity of medical art across the country.
The summit, with the theme: ‘The Nexus between Striking Academic and Professional Relevance Across the Global Medical Landscape’, featured the Vice President of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Dr. Tunji Adenekan, as well as an Australian-based Nigerian Emergency Physician, Dr. Osiomah Omogbai-Musa Anthony, who offered extensive career-related counsel on how Nigerian-trained medical students could positively contribute towards reshaping the Nigerian medical space across the globe through leveraging collaborations and mentorship opportunities at all levels.
Commenting on the need for medical students to consider a career in academic medicine, Dr. Ibidapo-Obe noted that being an academic physician affords one the opportunity to carve a niche within the global medical terrain while also making tremendous contributions to both academic medicine and clinical practices.
She said: “The academic space within the global medical ecosystem gives you the opportunity as a budding physician to explore possible areas of interest you might not have considered initially. This is because academic medicine takes you to an unbeatable height of professional excellence which is not comparable to what a regular doctor affords you. This is made evident as clinical-academic medicine enables medical practitioners to contribute towards the advancement of medicine, while also developing a strong network of medical researchers, with the option of then pivoting into the world of private practice.”
Speaking on leveraging opportunities inherent in exploring mentorships and collaborations, the vice president of the NMA, Dr. Tunji Adenekan, admonished students to explore the networking opportunities the NMA provides upon completion of their programme.
“This is because it keeps them updated with the developments across the Nigerian medical community,” he said.
