 It's a new month and I want to wish you all a happy new month. It's your favorite gynecologist Dr. Wanda Maya and I'm back again with another video. Like I said, the revolution is happening. It's time to make Africa home again. I've been telling you what the retinins are doing here in Ghana. I've shown you a restaurant owned by a retinine, so which means whenever you come to Ghana, you'll find a place to eat. I've shown you where you can have fun, which is also owned by a retinine. I've also shown you properties that are owned by a retinine. So if you really want to return back to Ghana, definitely you'll have a place to sleep. But today, whenever you come to Ghana, I know that at some point in time, you will feel sick. So I need to bring you to a hospital. And this is where I present to you Luca Health Medical Center, which is also owned by a retinine and she is an African-American. How amazing, right? Don't forget to like the video. Hey, and you are new to the channel. It's your boy Mr. Ghana, baby. No, sorry. Your favorite gynecologist doctor, yeah? But do me a favor, 500,000 subscribers already, which means we can hit a million. I know each and every one out there has a family member. Do so by introducing this channel to your family member. Come with me because I don't know, maybe this video might be long. I get super excited whenever I want to talk about something that is done by retinine because I'm saying that it's time for both Africans on the continent and Africans in the diaspora to make Africa home again. Come with me and let's go talk to them. I am Maya. You are the president of Luca Health Medical Center. I am. Yeah. It's an honor to see you. It's a pleasure to have a conversation with you and tell you about the things that we're doing. I'm excited to have this conversation. But first of all, you need to tell me your name and where you're from and why you're here. Sure. My name is Rodney Armstead. I was born in the U.S., born in Los Angeles. I currently, when I'm home, house out of the Northeast. But Ghana became interesting because of the larger Black Ivy vision. The larger Black Ivy vision is about building enterprises on services and goods across Sub-Saharan Africa, Tanzania, Kenya, Ghana. These things that we do are intended to improve the quality of life, improve the services that are offered for people that live in the regions that we're serving. It also allows us to bring new resources in that otherwise might have been difficult or challenging. But overall, a tent is always to improve the quality of life. We can improve the circumstances because we can employ people because they can work. I got involved because knowing the CEO, Cheryl Mills and Executive Chairman, Tony Welters, we had worked. Tony Welters and I had worked together for decades and asked me to consider this five years ago. And when I looked at it, I said, wow, we used the word transformational too liberally in the United States. But the opportunity to come and do what we're doing at Luca Health to create a medical surgical specialty center with the type of investment and commitment that we were talking about was truly going to be an opportunity to do something transformational. So that's what motivated me to kind of leave the states and come here. And I've been living here like the last four years. Okay. So I guess your name is Linda. I am Linda. Welcome. Thank you. Linda Abuaji. You're Ghanaian? Yes, I am. Very much Ghanaian. Very much Ghanaian. 100% Ghanaian. But your accent doesn't sound like a Ghanaian. I'm Ghanaian born American raised. Oh, okay. Yes. Wow. Welcome. Thank you. To Luca Health. I'm sure you've seen a lot of great things so far. No, I've seen a lot. I'm here to explore. But the only person who can take me around. So I just wanted to know what is Luca Health all about? Welcome. So Luca Health is a state-of-the-art multi-specialty center. So what that simply means is we have multiple specialists that see you and consult with you. And then if you need surgery, the same specialists will also do the surgery for you. And how long does the surgery take? Usually our surgery, because it's an ambulatory surgery center, that usually means outpatient. That means we do surgery on the same day and then you're discharged the same afternoon. So for example, if you come in for your procedure, you'll check in at 7 a.m., you do your procedure, and then a few hours later, 12 o'clock, if everything is fine, the nursing team and anesthesia team check you out, you'll be discharged for the day. Same day. So you don't admit patients in here? We typically do not admit patients. So we assess patients before the surgery to make sure that they're a good candidate. Is it the first of it kind in Ghana? It is the first of it's kind in Ghana. I get to a surgery, I think I sit in the hospital for more than a month. Well the good thing about Luka Health is we're bringing a lot of that technology into Ghana. So the rest of the world, the developed world is moving in that direction where it's a lot of outpatient surgeries to keep the risk of infections in hospitals lower. And the techniques that we use also help the patient recover faster. So bringing it to Ghana, it is the first of it's kind in Ghana. Multi-specialty center. Are you one of the doctors who does the surgery? I'm not a doctor. I'd love to be a doctor, but no, I'm not a doctor. So I'm the director of ambulatory services. So a lot of what Luka Health focuses on is the customer service aspect of it, as well as the patient experience. So we're patient centric. So we make sure that the patient has a good experience from beginning to end. And I'm in charge of all that. And I want to know what kind of surgery goes on here? So we have a general surgeon. We have a gynecologist. Oh, I am a gynecologist. You're a gynecologist? I know. I heard you're a very experienced one. So we have an internal medicine. We have a nephrologist. And we also have ENT. And a urologist. My name is Maya. Hi Maya. Gynecologists in here. I'm sorry about that. Oh, okay. You don't believe that I'm a gynecologist? Yeah, whatever you say, Maya. Thank you. I like your names. Very nice. Thank you. You work in here? Yes. With you? As anesthetists. As a surgical physician assistant. Born and raised in Ghana? No. I was born in Cameroon. And partially raised in Cameroon. Then lived most of my life in the U.S. What about you? Same here. Are you guys together? Yes, that's my husband. That's beautiful. But why are you hiding that from me? We didn't hear that. It's a family affair. But I wanted to know. You left the U.S.A. to work in Ghana? Absolutely. Nobody told you that you guys are getting crazy? A lot of people. People told us that. Yeah. But we're originally from Africa. Africa. So this is home. It's not crazy. It's home. Yes. We sold our home. Packed up. Two kids. Two kids. And brought them over. To Ghana. Wow. And how has the experience been like so far? Amazing. It's been amazing. We keep telling our friends back in the States that. They need to come. They need to come. Come back home. We have a lot of people back there with knowledge and clinical skills that they can come back home. And help our people. So that's what we hear. You know, I know your doctors working in here. Definitely. There are some kind of changes that you guys are bringing on board. Can you just give me like a little bit? So for us, I'll give you an example. We don't, in Africa, there isn't a lot of outpatient surgery center. I mean, outpatient means you come in for surgery the same day. And you leave the same day. You don't stay for a week. No, stay for two weeks. You stay for a day. You go home the same day. We don't have that in Africa. And that's what we've brought here. And that's my specialty. I love outpatient surgery. Because what I give anesthesia, I make sure that our patients leave the same day. So that's something that, you know, I feel like if we bring that into our community, our practice here, it will change everything. You know, we've got a lot of, especially Nigerian doctors, African doctors out there. Yes. Yes. I mean, then, you know, we try to change that narrative, right? Thank you. A lot of Africans leave here, go to the UK, go to the US, go to India to seek medical care. You know, those are things that they don't have to do. Because what happens, we are here. We've brought those skills. We're doing minimal invasive procedures. So the good thing about that is if they go out there, they have to pay for a flight, they have to pay for a hotel. Then the aftercare is not that adequate because they go in and do a procedure then they come back to Africa. So who flew up? There's that disconnect. The surgeon in the West, there's no communication with the surgeon here or the physician here that has fallen up on the patient. But once you have our procedure done with us, it's a one-stop shop. If there's any other thing that needs to be done, we can just refer you to the other physician around the corner. So you actually have better quality of care. That's beautiful. Doc, can you tell me your role in here? So I work in internal medicine and nephrology. Internal medicine looks after adult diseases. Anything about the age of 18 that deals with medicine. But do you are a Ghanaian? I'm a Ghanaian, absolutely. Born in Kumasi, grew up in Kumasi in primary school, then came to Akraa at Chimotah school and college before leaving the country for a while. Where did you go to? I spent 20 years in England, 10 years in Canada and one year in the Middle East in Qatar before returning home about nine months ago. Doc, after spending all these years out of Ghana, why do you want to come back home and work in Ghana? Returning home was the best thing I ever did. My father grew up in Ghana. He was a doctor, went abroad, came back. His stories were that Ghana was the best place to live and it's been the same for me. Ghana is where I come from. It's where my heart is. This is my people. Here I am one of a group of people. I'm not different from everyone else. I belong and it's really a blessing to be able to participate in giving healthcare back. Anything back to your environment and your people. I'm very, very happy to be back. Doc, are you trying to say back in the days when you were working out of Ghana and you did not feel like you belonged there or something? Essentially, I was treated very well but my heart has always been here. The people here have the same genetic bond with me. That bond never goes away. For me, it's very deep. To break that and accept another people as your own, some people can do. But for me, I have always been at home. I have never spent 365 continuous days out of Ghana. Every year I come back twice. In fact, there was one year I came back six times. That's how precious Ghana is for me. You're working in Luka Health Centre right now of which I believe that most of the people that are working here are put Africans in the diaspora and Africans on the continent. How does it feel like working with people like that? I love working in multicultural environments because everyone brings something different to the table. Everyone has learned art of medicine in a different country. You have a different perspective. When you come and meet people, you always learn something new and I love learning. Plus, you also get different perspectives, different approaches. When you add that to what you already know, it always improves you. Plus, that team gives you an understanding of how people from a particular culture behave. So when you meet patients from that culture, you know how to relate to them. Interacting with people makes it much easier to interact with a broader group of people. It makes you a better doctor. If you cannot interact with people, you cannot practice medicine. I just want to know, the CEO is a black American. Yes. And you're also a black American. Yes. I just want to ask you this question. You're a black American. Establishing something like this here in Africa. He said it's sub-Saharan Africa. I've seen the other project that you've done, IE Mesa Park. Yes. The housing. Yeah. This one. Do you think that it's time for African-Americans and Africans to work together to liberate Africa to come together to build a continent? Do you think it's necessary at the fair moment? Yeah. I think that there's an extraordinary opportunity here. What I mean by that is this. If you look at the political environment that's going on in the United States today, it's really nothing new. But it's unfortunate that the dynamic that's playing out is creating an opportunity for people to really kind of re-evaluate what the U.S. is about. And particularly for African-Americans who fundamentally have been really kind of like the center of the negative attack that's occurred as a result of the dynamics of the political circumstances there. I think the conversations you hear and a lot of my colleagues call me up talking about how things have gone. I think I want to come over there and some of it is that's like, yeah, they've kind of talked about it before, but the opportunity is even more relevant to them now because they feel, hey, look, things have got to be, you know, they've got to be good opportunity there now. So what I share this at to say is that there's a momentum of foot for people to want to kind of really be open about considering, you know, coming to the continent. But I do believe that there's an opportunity to share, you know, what's rich about the Ghanian culture, what's rich about the African-American culture, bring those together because I think that there are some learnings that can be had on both sides. And it's just going to require everybody to be willing to be open, right? And so sometimes we kind of get stuck in our ways, but it's really about saying, hey, look, let's embrace each other and we're better together than as, you know, as individuals. So if we can bring a lot of that energy together, I think that it would be very, very positive for the continent. How does it feel like working with Africans on the continent as an African-American? It feels very good. It feels very natural. I was very excited when this opportunity became available with Luca Health. I've always dreamed about coming back or coming to visit Mother Africa. And so this has allowed me to do two things I'm passionate about, health care and, you know, sort of get a sense of my roots, you know, as an African-American. So, yeah. Do you feel safe in here? Absolutely. Especially at this point in time with everything that's going on back in the United States with the, you know, the killing of African-Americans almost on a weekly basis. The continued fueling of the fire by the current president who just wants to continue to divide us. And, you know, it just seems so surreal right now. I feel like I'm watching a documentary about the civil rights movement in the 1960s. It's just crazy over there right now. But what really excites me about being here is how passionate the Ghanaian people are about what's going on in the United States. And you know what I want you to do because this is owned by an African-American and definitely we have a lot of Africans in the diaspora who I believe that they can do more on the continent. So if both of you should send a message to our fellow brothers and sisters living in the diaspora to return home, what will that message be? The message will be, please come back home. Come back home. Africa is the future. We as young people, we have to take charge of our future. We cannot let people actually talk about our narrative. We have to be the narrative. So come back home. Come develop Africa. Come help Africans, your fellow brothers and sisters. Bring the knowledge that you've learned from the diaspora. Come back home. Do you think Africa is the future? I think Africa is the future. I think when you look at the resources that's on, that's available in the continent, I think that what you've seen is development that's fundamentally occurred in other emerging countries that fundamentally are now becoming increasingly more developed. China is a classic example of a country that figured out how to embrace and transform its large rural areas and large populations into creating an opportunity for them to be able to work and drive income to support their families. But fundamentally China is a powerhouse in driving a lot of economy and commerce that pushes out of the country, right? So if you look at that, you basically say in Africa, we just have begun to scratch the surface of what the opportunity is. And I think things are fundamentally delayed, but I think investing dollars will continue to move toward the continent. I think as investors particularly and others begin to see how things fundamentally begin to develop here, I think you'll see more and more investment come in that kind of supports this, but I think that the continent is extraordinary in its resources and it just hasn't been leveraged and sought after from an international investing perspective, but I think you see indicators where a lot of money is increasingly coming into the continent and I think a lot more people are going to be more and more interested in coming here because there's just untapped resources. Who are the people that are expected to come in here? Anybody that needs medical and surgical care. So if you have, if you've seen your general practitioner and you need to be monitored or managed in a particular way, so a specialist needs to see you, either referred to a specialist or referred for surgery or the place to come to get your... Where is the location? So we have two locations. You're currently standing at our new flagship location, which is Lukahelk West. So this is in the same campus as MDS Lancet in East Lagoon. The second one is also in East Lagoon, but it's over by the underbridge if you're familiar with East Lagoon. It's in the Occasional Medical Center campus as well. Do you think that someone like Wode Maia can afford it? Absolutely. A whole Wode Maia. It's not too expensive for you. A whole Wode Maia you can afford. And again, think about it this way. How much is your health worth to you? Health as well, you know. Absolutely. You've got to do the investment. And it's very, very affordable. So it's important that people look at it as value for your money. So if you're investing in your health, then you know that long-term you know what is already wrong with you and you know what you're dealing with versus coming up on, and we're having issues of cancer and things that we're finding out later and then are only going to be treated. But the best prevention is to know earlier so that you know how to treat it. So it's very affordable. Very, very affordable. Very affordable. High quality, very affordable. If I should understand whatever goes on here, you're trying to tell Africans that enough of spending your money abroad for your health care instead of doing it here at Luka Health Center. Absolutely. There is no need for you, so if you have family members that are in Ghana, from here to go to check-up abroad, they do the check-ups right here. We have internal medicine who can do the check-up for you. We have the resources, we have the physicians, we have the knowledge base all right here in Ghana. If you need surgery done, we can do it right here in Ghana also. You don't have to fly abroad to do the surgery. Do you regret coming out together? Absolutely not. Absolutely not. I thought you were going to say absolutely not. Absolutely not. So it's always in my dream to come back to Ghana. I've always, always, always had Ghana at heart. As I mentioned earlier, I am Ghanaian-born and American-raised, so I left Ghana very, very early, and I've always been in my deal, and you can ask my friends, you can ask people that I deal with all the time, is they always said Linda said she would move back to Ghana. However, I didn't think it would be this early. I wanted to come back to Ghana and make an impact in health care. I didn't think it would be this early. I'm glad that it is, but I don't regret it at all. I made the move and I haven't regretted it since. Thank you so much for talking to me. Thank you, thank you, Woody. Absolutely, pleasure to meet you.