Doctors and technology
An address
by Professor F A Orhewere
to the
Class of 1987 Medical Graduates of the University of Benin
September
2017
It is my pleasure to use this opportunity to
express greetings to the Class of 1987 medical graduates of the University of
Benin, on this occasion of this reunion.
It is thirty years since the wonderful
exhilarating experience of that graduation ceremony, after five or more years
of toil. For some it was pure joy, for
others profound relief. Today, and this
weekend, I hope all of you, including my daughter Mary, will recall with
nostalgia your memories of yester-years.
Your training period overlapped the time when
I, as a University Teacher and practising surgeon, ventured into the heart of university
administration first as Dean of the School of Medicine from 1981 to 1985 and
later as Deputy Vice-Chancellor from 1986 to 1988. Alongside these roles, I
maintained the pleasure of teaching students and the satisfaction of clinical
orthopaedic practice. Notwithstanding
this incursion into administration, I trust your exposure to all specialties of
medicine, and to orthopaedics in particular, was significant, encouraging and
fruitful. I congratulate all of you in your various
specialties and wish you success in your chosen fields. I am delighted to hear that some of you have
chosen the honourable specialty of Orthopaedics.
As your former teacher and one-time career
adviser, I feel obliged to use this opportunity to talk to you about potential
redundancy. I must warn you that whatever your specialty of practice, there is
looming on the horizon a danger to the profession of which we must be aware: it
is complacency.
Technology has significantly invaded our lives and
medical practice, for example, in pathology and other specialities. A host of appropriate questions and patient information
fed into a computer can lead to reasonably accurate diagnoses and recommended line
of treatment including drugs. At
present, where surgery is required, technology has not yet bypassed the surgeon
though it can be a valued surgeon’s assistant.
Therefore, it behoves medical doctors to embrace
technology for the good of their patients and to maintain their clinical
relevance and uphold their professional dignity. It would be complacent of doctors not to
embrace technology for good. This will be different according to your
circumstances.
But back to today and this weekend.
Your shared experience of medical school and
your individual journeys in the intervening years have brought you to
today. Thanks to modern technology (and your
hard work), this is your weekend. Enjoy
yourselves, and reminisce a while.
Reignite old friendships and establish new ones.
I wish you a happy reunion.
God bless you all.
Brief Biography
Professor F A Orhewere
In a career spanning 50 years, Professor
Felix A Orhewere held various appointments including Senior Consultant at the
National Orthopaedic Hospital, Igbobi, and Pinderfield Hospital, Wakefield,
Field Lt Colonel Nigerian Army Medical Corps, Professor of Orthopaedics at the
University of Benin, and Chief Consultant for Sokoto, Kebbi & Zamfara
States, University of Abuja Teaching Hospital, and the National Hospital
Abuja.
Born to Anglican Missionary parents of Ora,
Edo State, Professor Orhewere attended Government College Ibadan and, in 1948,
was one of the foundation students of University College Ibadan. Consequently, he was one of the first batch
of students sent in 1951 to the United Kingdom to complete his medical studies
where he graduated from Guys Hospital Medical School, University of London in
1955. He became a Fellow of Royal
College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (FRCS Ed) in 1962 and Master of Orthopaedics
(M Ch Orth, Liverpool) in 1963. He
retired from orthopaedic practice and teaching in 2005. He enjoys music, photography and
travelling.
No comments:
Post a Comment