Eight things to know about team leader of Nigeria’s first tele-robotic surgery

Professor Obi Davies-Ekwenna made history by leading the team that performed Nigeria’s first tele-robotic surgery.

The team remotely operated on a patient in Abuja from Redeemer’s Health Village in Mowe, Ogun State.

The landmark procedure involved a robot-assisted right radical nephrectomy to remove a kidney affected by a cancerous tumour.

Here are eight things to know about Obi Davies-Ekwenna:

·      He is a professor and robotic surgeon.

·       He is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of RoboMed Global Inc. and the Managing Director of Robo Medics.

·      He is a professor at the University of Toledo.

·      Before becoming a professor, Davies-Ekwenna worked as an Assistant Professor of Urology and Transplantation and later as an Associate Professor.

·      He has been involved in robotic surgery programmes.

·      His professional training includes an abdominal transplantation fellowship at the University of Miami, where he also completed his urology residency.

·      He obtained his medical degree from the University of Illinois College of Medicine after earning a bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of California, Berkeley.

·      Davies-Ekwenna is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and a Diplomate of the American Board of Urology.