An Exclusive Chat With Dr. Tobi Ayodele Keeney, M.D Quincy Integrated Medical Center

By Godwin Onyemaechi and Samuel Fadipe

Kindly introduce yourself?

Am Dr. Tobi Ayodele Keeney, the managing director of queency wellness and atopedic centre , I did biochemistry and psychology for my bachelor’s and a master in nursing and doctorate in antropatic medicine , but I did everything in the united state of America. I came back to Nigeria to regularize with the antopathic medicine here in Nigeria.

So in 1998, I was about 14 years we tried the American Visa Lottery and to our surprise, we got it, so that was how me and my siblings traveled to the United State of America. At that point, my mum just started her career in herbal business and my dad too was trying to grow in his career, so they couldn’t just stay in the US to become cab driver and Nurse, so they left us there and came back to Nigeria to face there career.

LETS TALK ABOUT YOUR GROWING UP?

I grew up in Nigeria till I was 14 years , I attended queens college the greatest school ever. We didn’t have a lot growing up, but we where very happy, I grew up having a lot of aunties and uncle’s live with us, so am never use to staying alone, my parents didn’t have enough while we where growing up, but looking back , we use to hock pof pof , we didn’t have light most times, we use to go out to fetch water. So I will say I that I had a fairly happy up bringing. My parents did a lot to make sure we went to the best schools, it was so that we will be knowledgeable enough to be at pal with the international standard.

But often times, my Mum comes to pay us a visit,so that was where we lived until we got married and started coming back to Nigeria , so I grew up as an immigrant in the United State, I didn’t grow up with silver spoon in my mouth, but my children are the one enjoying there lives now we grew up having to work , I have always worked and I have been working since I got to the United State ,because I don’t expect my parents to send money for all the things I needed, they only gave us the basics .

So as far as I can remember, since 1998 my Mum has been travelling to different African countries for several seminars, symposiums etc making sure that the world health organization recognize that the traditional is needed especially in the African health care sector, to improve positive patients care outcome, however, you cannot do western only , it needs to be integrated.

LET’S TALK ABOUT YOUR ORGANIZATION, HOW HAS IT BEEN RUNNING THE AFFAIRS OF YOUR COMPANY?

Yes, my organization was Quincy herbal slimmer, we became Quincy herbals since 10 years ago, but last year became Quincy integrated medical centre. My Mum is a world health organization member and expert on traditional medicine.

So I have been helping my Mum to come up with a research , even though I was studying in the medical Field, I was also researching in the antropatric field, to give an evidence base research for her to be. able to have a scientific approach or arguments that is backed with evidence. So as you can see, I was learning the the both ways at the same time which is why the government need to integrate it
Though some member countries have signed it into law.

For now only Lagos State government has passed the bill into law in Nigeria. So there has been a lot of work done by people like my Mum and some other notable personalities to make sure that things are in proper shape in this aspect , so basically what we do now is that integrated approach and we are licensed in both medical and traditional, though we have been practising both together and so far, we have recorded 100% success, coupled with the fact that we are digitalized, we are able to monitor our patients very well and all our staffs are medical personnel I don’t really have any staff coming from the traditional background but they have all been won over by the way the integration has been going on , some of them are working in the lab, so they see the result of how the things are actually going on and they are happy with the approach.

HOW CAN YOU DESCRIBE YOUR EXPERIENCE SO FAR?

It has been challenging because they are two type of medicine which are at war with each other, so we that are now merging the two, it hasn’t been easy., one thing that gives me joy is that once a patient comes in here, they are won over with the treatment they get , be it medical or traditional because we are good at what we are doing, we are not like the average clinics that will just administer drugs without an in depth research on what the case of the patient may be.

In the case of the child am having his result chat with me, he is having malaria , it means we will use axatromysin which is antibiotics , so if you have tiffiod for instance, no body is going to give you agbo , the tYffoid itself is high, so you need antibiotic to treat it, though you can take agbo alongside the antibiotic and you will get a faster result, there are a lot of things the antibiotic will do that the agbo can’t do like wise the agbo , antibiotics can drop malaria count faster but the agbo can do it over time.

A LOT OF NIGERIANS STILL HAVE DOUBTS ABOUT HERBAL MEDICINE, HOW ARE YOU HANDLING IT?

The way it will work is that if you have diabetes, and you are about to die, we give you insulin, and if you have malaria, we treat you with anti maleria medicine, if you need drip, we give you drip and if you have high blood pressure, we give azytromisin
, measure your Paul’s and when you are stable, we will run proper test to know what caused high blood pressure e.g if it is caused by high cholesterol etc so based on that, we know what treatment to give to you whether it is dietary change or medical or even both. So it is not like we are going to be using only herbal but both, we don’t even have much herbal medicine on display, so if you come here with a medical issue, we will treat you in a medical way and if you also come with an issue that has to do with traditional, we also treat you traditionally for this is the reason we integrated.

If you have maleria, after running the test, am going to hand over antibiotics to you and not agbo,. When a patient comes and ihe is dehydrated and choking, at that point you don’t need to administer agbo to that patient, but like cancer diseases, kidney infection etc, that where herbal medicine is necessary and the dosage is also important I can’t just be giving a patient any quantity of agbo, I need to know the exact dosage, agbo is a kind of tea,it has nothing to do with herbal medicine, so while taking your maleria medicine, you can as well take your agbo alongside to help you recover faster and will need to take less medicine.

HOW DO YOU MANAGE COMPETITIONS in THE INTEGRATED HEALTH CARE SECTOR ?

In the area of the integrated health care sector, I don’t, I will say they are little or no competition at all, but in the herbal sector, we have a lot of competitions. So we decided to carve neitch for our self. And going by the way we are going, by the way we operate, there is no competition going by our mode of operation, I will say this is the first of its kind here in Nigeria. But going by the service we provide, we provide service for the herbal and for the medicals we do have competition in the service, but going by the integration, we don’t have competition. Am sure there may be, but I haven’t seen any hospital that is dually licensed , am also sure that with time, they will start springing up.

THE MANAGEMENT OF IS A HUGE TASK, HOW HAVE YOU BEEN ABLE TO MANAGE THE STAFF, CLIENTS AND RESOURCES ?

To start with, this is a family owned business, so is more like an SME center, Otis not a bank, so we have to run it like a family. So they keyed into my visions and we work as a team , if am not there or not, they come through because I have shared my vision with all of them and so we work as a team, we share the same passion for patient care, like they will say seeing is believing , they see how I treat patient and client so they follow suit. For patient care, I make my patient feel like we are the only one they need to see when ever they are in need of health care service, when a patient knows that there health care provider have there time, to hear everything about them, they are more comfortable with that provider. So because of that, they of load every information regarding there health, so with that you get more clue to what there problems are most times, when a patient talk for an hour, you only need a minute or two to know what there problems are than for them to talk for ten minutes and you now need two years to find out what there problems are.

HOW AFFORDABLE ARE YOUR PRODUCTS AND SERVICES ?

For Ikoyi, all we did is market survey and price was compered from Ikoyi all the way to Ajah, so we make sure our price are competitive enough with other medical outfits , so, let me say that our products and services are not expensive , but if you have a lot of things to do with us, you will definitely pay a lot of money, for instance, if you have 5 tests to run, there is no way we will charge you for only one test, so from here all the way to Ajah, our price is good , so I can say is cheap and expensive at the same time, but we have just made our product and services affordable.

Though we also have price for the communities people e.g the less privilege which is our way of giving back to the society .so is not like is totally free but they will have pay no mater how little so that it will add value to them.

WHAT IS YOUR BEAUTY ROUTINE?

It start with my diet, I don’t eat rice, bread, I don’t drink minerals etc, water is my main drink 98% of the liquid I take is water and I take a lot of supplements, if you want to maximize your youth, your life spam, you need a lot of supplements , I don’t want to look older like a Mother, it is not by force, my husband is 46 and he looks very young . I shouldn’t look a Mother, like when people see you they will say she is a Mother that’s why she is looking like this and that way, my Mother don’t look like that so I shouldn’t either. I know what she did to look that way, I use all her product,my mum is 63 she is still looking good and standing very well.

I don’t want to be 63 and am weak,let me do all I need do do now so that when am old, I will be standing, my grand mother climbs stair case several times a day and she does not use working stick and she is almost 90, she is still slim and standing well because she takes care of herself and it is a priority to her, so if those generation women can do it, then I need to step up my game in that regard.

WHAT’S YOUR DEFINITION OF BEAUTY?

My definition of beauty is good health, if you are not healthy, everything you are doing is just plaster. I believe if you are healthy from the inside,, then your beauty will manifest on the outside. To me, that is the definition of beauty. In terms of dressing, I am some one that dresses for comfort and to look good, so my own definition of beauty may be different from the general view, am a medical person, am used to the uniform, if you have a good skin, eat the right meal , you will just glow from the inside.

WHAT IS THAT BEAUTY ITEM YOU CANT DO WITHOUT?

I can’t do without my red lipstick, I can’t do without my facial serum because it makes my face smooth .

WHAT I S YOUR FAVORITE COLOR ?

Pink is my favorite color and too.

WHAT IS YOUR PRICELESS PROCESSION ?

Good health I think is my priceless procession , not children, not husband but good health . it is only when you are healthy that you can talk about other things.

IF YOU CAN TURN BACK THE HANDS OF CLOCK, WHAT IS THAT THING THAT YOU WOULD DO RIGHT ?

I think I would have married earlier so my children will be older than they are now, and one other thing , I wouldn’t have had my children through my womb, I would have done surrogacy for all of them , that is actually the only thing I think I should have done right.

AND WHAT WILL YOUR FAVORITE FOOD BE ?

Yam is my favorite food , though I don’t eat it all the time, but it is my favorite.

FOR THE YOUNGER LADIES WHO ARE ASPIRING TO BE LIKE YOU SOMEDAY, WHAT WILL BE YOUR MESSAGE TO THEM ?

Marriage is not for love, love and marriage are two different thing , don’t think that because you love some one, that is the reason you should marry the person , until about 50 years ago, you do not have a choice of who you get married to, the people that are marring for love in America are experiencing 50% divorce rate, so love is not enough for marriage, you have to be compatible in all aspect of your life , you have to be ready to offer sacrifices, you have to understand that person’s background and be okay with it, you have to know how to work on your partner , so it is another job entirely because when love fades away, what is left you may not be able to handle it.