Ibukun Tunde-Oni is a medical doctor working at the intersection of healthcare, business, and technology. After experiencing the avoidable deaths of two close relatives and nearly losing his life, Ibukun Tunde-Oni founded Eight Medical.
Nicknamed/Dubbed “911 for Africa” – EightMedical is a platform that connects emergency medical responders (resources- people, places (hospitals), data, and vehicles )ambulances ) to users in need in 10 minutes or less. It is powered by a network of pre-hospital care professionals that provide urgent and emergency care when it matters most.
In a chat with Founder Africa, Founder and CEO of EightMedical, Ibukun Tunde-Oni spoke on this journey into entrepreneurship, about his startup, and more.
FA: Tell me about your background, your interest, and how it all led you to eight medical.
Ibukun: First, I am a medical doctor who has been practicing for 11 years. I have also founded a few companies; one was in health care and the other in logistics. Background-wise, I am one of five kids, the only doctor in my family, and most times, usually saddled with the responsibility of saving the day. I had medical school in Nigeria, traveled out of the country for a bit, noticed a few interesting things outside Nigeria, and decided to bring these things back here.
After this, I started my first company and eventually sold that off. I started another company with a few other people named Awa Bike which is a micro-mobility company and eventually started EightMedical. Between 2020 & 2021, during COVID-19, there were so many unfortunate emergencies and I lost two of my uncles. One died from an asthmatic attack. He died in traffic while coming from a ‘wrong’ hospital which his driver took him to. The other uncle passed away on while eating Christmas lunch with his family. All through these difficult times, my family was calling to ask me what I could do in such situations being the only doctor in the family. This is a common practice especially here in Nigeria where people have health issues and call their doctor friend, doctor relative, doctor neighbor, or the doctor they usually see, depending on how close they are. However, in these cases, there was nothing I could do than attend the two funerals. Personally, I once had an accident and I wasn’t able to get care for like 3hrs even being a doctor in this same country. I broke a few bones and luckily I am still able to use my hands. After that, I decided to solve the problem and that’s why I am here now.
FA: You said something about the ‘wrong’ hospital and ‘right’ hospital. How do you know and spot the wrong hospital from the right hospital?
Ibukun: This is part of what we do and this is why we are solving these problems. The public doesn’t necessarily know what a wrong or right hospital is or a wrong or right pharmacy. Hospitals are divided into three; primary, secondary, and tertiary.
Tertiary hospitals: These are hospitals like Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) that have professors, teaching capabilities, and all specialties in one place.
Secondary hospital: This might or might not have a good number of specialties or they are usually dedicated to one specialty.
General hospitals ought to be tertiary hospitals but obviously, they are not. A primary health center is supposed to treat cases like; malaria, minor injuries, hypertension, and nothing out of the box because it’s primary, it’s basic. So, if someone has an emergency and ended up at a primary health center, you are most likely wasting your time because they will send you to another hospital. Also, there are hospitals and there are clinics. Clinics don’t run 24/7, they are open 8-5 like other businesses and are for medical issues for example; we have a dermatological clinic and an eye clinic which are usually into medical specialties.
Hospitals usually have more than one bed and run 24 hours so, if you end up at a clinic instead of the hospital, you are just wasting your time but then, the public doesn’t know this and that was what happened in my uncle’s case, he ended up at a clinic instead of a hospital.
FA: What is EightMedical all about?
Ibukun Tunde-Oni: Basically, for anyone I am meeting for the first time; we are basically a platform that connects emergency medical resources to users in need. These resources could be; people, places, or ambulances. We are connecting these resources to a user in need in ten minutes or less. The idea is to be able to provide on-demand and emergency care, just the way people provide food delivery or grocery delivery in 30 minutes or 20 minutes well. We are trying to do the same thing with health care as this makes us a hybrid between 911 and UBER for health care. So, sometimes we tag ourselves as 911 of Nigeria or 911 of Africa, so the people can get the picture.
However, the truth of the matter is, not every case is an emergency, for example, your grandma is ill but usually goes to see the doctor or needs to do an X-ray and that’s obviously not an emergency so, you can book an UBER for that, just that your grandma might not be able to walk there so, you book an ambulance or if someone is having malaria or vomiting, it’s not emergency but an urgent case, someone can check you up at your house and you don’t necessarily need to go to the hospital, they could do a few tests with you at home. That’s like an urgent case there.
We have urgent, emergency, and non-emergency transport. The services we provide are divided into three;
- We have standbys; which are for events like sports, soccer games, tournaments, concerts, and productions.
- We also have transport from the roadside to the hospital, from the house to the hospital, from the road to a morgue, and from a state where someone died to another state. So, transportation can be for the living or dead, land or air. Also, the response is like 911 and these are the services we provide and that’s what makes up emergencies.
FA: Why the name Eight Medical?
Ibukun Tunde-Oni: The global response time (call to the arrival of medic on the scene) by the WHO is 8 mins.
FA: When did you start? How has it been and how has the acceptance been?
Ibukun Tunde-Oni: First and Foremost, whether or not people like it, they need help. There are different problems in life, there are problems that are apparent, and there are problems we didn’t know we had until solutions came. For example, look at UBER, it is a solution we didn’t know we needed until it came because we used to stay at the side of the road trying to get a cab until someone felt there are plenty of cabs and you can even get one from the comfort of your home. Let’s show you other cabs.
There are several issues we’ve been solving such as; children collapsing, a pregnant woman trying to give birth, and a building collapsing. So, it’s been highly accepted and we are trying to meet up with demands and that’s why we are fundraising and looking to scale up. There are a lot of ambulances in this country but people can’t see them or don’t have access to them. Even when you see them, they will charge you a high fee because you believe they are the only one and they also believe they are rendering you exclusive services, and it’s like the case of being the last person to book a ticket on a flight and as such if a flight charges you four times, you have no choice. We know a lot of people can’t afford these things so, we make it cheap enough for people to afford but not too cheap to run out of business.
FA: How does Eight Medical work? From when someone places a distress call?
Ibukun Tunde-Oni: From the call, a dispatcher picks up, and if its an emergency the dispatcher triages the call and dispatches the call to the closest, most appropriate responder on the network.
FA: Do you charge before rendering the service or after? Are prices (for example, ambulances) fixed or negotiable?
Ibukun Tunde-Oni: Charging Depends on the service being rendered, for emergencies we try our very best to charge after. The prices are fixed but affordable
FA: How was the Ninja accelerator program 2022 for you?
Ibukun Tunde-Oni: it was fine. The workshops helped and we were able to meet people who helped us understand how to work as a startup, going digital like magazines (i don’t remember the magazine part) and all.
FA: What’s next for eight medical?
Ibukun Tunde-Oni: Fund raising and growth. A lot of people don’t know about us so, we are looking to create that awareness because you can’t possibly use UBER if you don’t know about it. We are doing a lot regarding ads, fundraising, and working on our technology as well.
FA: Where do you see the health TECH space in a couple of years? Especially in a country like Nigeria?
Ibukun Tunde-Oni: Nigeria has about 200 million people, there is obviously a market to sell but, not everyone can afford health tech. For those who create things and are solving problems, the sky is their limit but for those who are not solving problems, it will become apparent in a few months because investors are tired of storytelling without actual results and there’s only so much you can do when it comes to telling a lie. There are several things that are difficult to implement in Nigeria. The tech space is really large and there are several issues that are yet to be solved. In the world, Nigeria is supposed to be the largest country from what I heard, by 2025 or 2026. We are still growing and there are still many solutions to be derived from the health tech space. But, we need more funding and people to focus on us. I mean, we are not fintech but then we also need money, I know people like fintech because of quick money but then we also need money.
FA: When you are not working on EightMedicals, what else are you doing?
Ibukun Tunde-Oni: Well, the question is when am I not doing or working on Eight medical? Well, I sleep, eat, and drink EightMedicals. I am so passionate about eight medical that it keeps me up at night. I mean I sleep and have dreams about eight medical, about how a particular problem is coming to my head, how I am solving the problem or a dream of a patient who isn’t able to get our services and so I begin to think of how we can do it better. To be honest, aside from attending conferences on behalf of eight medical or watching Netflix while my laptop is open, I like Amapiano music and I try to listen to music from time to time in a lounge.
FA: What would people be surprised to know about you?
Ibukun Tunde-Oni: I think a lot of people will be surprised to know I am a doctor. Well, people say I don’t look like a doctor or act like a doctor. I am from Kwara state, Nigeria, I also think that’s another thing that will surprise people.
FA: Do you like cars, football or what do you really like? Or maybe books?
Ibukun Tunde-Oni: I used to play football really well and I support man united, I like money and I love what money can buy. I also love cars.
FA: If you were to pick a car, what brand would it be?
Ibukun Tunde-Oni: For economy’s sake, I will pick Toyota. But my favorite car is a G-Wagon. But looking at the economy, liability, fuel, and more, I will just go for a land cruiser because the parts are not expensive.
FA: Thank you very much for your time
