A Nigerian-born medical doctor, Dr Seyi Oyesola is one of the popular and intelligent inventors in the medical world as he co-invented “hospital in a box” called CompactOR (Compact Operating Room) in 2007.

The “Hospital in a Box” was a portable set with the capability of bringing surgical care to all parts of the African continent.

According to information on Wikipedia, the CompactOR was movable and could be delivered to rural areas and other places with jeep or helicopter. 

Another amazing feature of the “hospital in a box” was that it could be set up in just ten minutes with a complete operating room with all the relevant surgical tools including the defibrillators, EKG monitoring, anesthesia and surgical lighting. 

It was solar paneled and could perform oral surgeries like the removal of wisdom teeth, removal of cataracts, gall bladders and appendices, and has successfully been used. 

The estimated cost of the basic hospital in a box was less than £50,000 (around US $77,350) which was about one fifth of the cost made available for the same services.

Oyesola was born in Nigeria but grew up in Cleveland, the United States. He graduated from high school in 1975 and came down to Nigeria where he obtained his Bachelors of Science Degree from the University of Lagos in 1986. 

Dr Seyi Oyesola practised in Nigeria for a short time before going to the United Kingdom and the US for specialised training in anesthesiology and critical care.

He explained that the idea and passion behind the creation of ‘hospital in a box’ was the experience of how people died from simple treatable and manageable illnesses like trauma, burn and heart attacks in community hospitals and health centres, when he came to the country to practise in 2015.

This was where the innovation on improving the health sector in the country began. He worked in the University of Lagos where he rose to lead a team of young doctors in anesthesiology.

Dr Oyesola was appointed consultant at Medway Maritime Hospital in the UK. In 1998, he joined the University of California, Los Angeles as a visiting Assistant Professor. In 1999, he became a consultant in anesthesia and critical care in the UK National Health Service (NHS). He also taught at the medical simulation center of the Imperial College School of Medicine in 2001.

Aside from the invention, he participated in performing the first successful kidney transplant at the Delta State University Teaching Hospital in 2014.

He has worked for more than 25 years on the special needs in anesthesiology and critical care, bringing innovation, developing high-tech medical equipment and training to African hospitals as well as visiting rural hospitals.

Oyesola’s achievements include co-authorship and publications of 8 articles on medicine, co-development of CompactOR, establishment of Practice Ventures in 1996, a company that developed and supplied high-tech medical equipment and training to African hospitals.

He also had a successful TED Global talk in 2007 on hospital in a box, he has a Membership of Professional Associations, Association of Anesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland, Royal Society of medicine, Intensive Care Society, UK and Royal College of Surgeons (Anaesthesia) Ireland.

[Vanguard]