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HIC History As an accomplished scholar and successful healthcare entrepreneur, Dr. Madu served on the faculty of Cardiovascular Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical School, one of the world’s most prestigious University Hospitals. He experienced first hand the effectiveness of modern treatment options for cardiovascular disease in improving the quality of life and the life expectancy of those who had access to these sophisticated interventions. Over the years, Dr. Madu has taken time to study the health care system in Jamaica and other developing countries around the world. He concluded that even though much was being done cardiac care was a far cry from what was routinely available to patients in the United States. An environment that encouraged wealthy Jamaicans to seek premium healthcare in the USA and other European destinations is neither acceptable nor sustainable and is detrimental to our national economic and infrastructural development. In addition, this untenable approach denies appropriate care to most Jamaicans who are customarily denied these life saving options because they have no access to overseas institutions. As the number of citizens needing this high quality cardiac care dramatically increased, the drain on the economy posed a major problem as more and more local dollars were being spent overseas to purchase these services. Interestingly, many of our wealthy citizens that depended on US and other overseas locations for their cardiac care have died suddenly at home from cardiac disease because of the absence of a well equipped local facility to respond to emergency situations. The time lapse to transport patients out of the country could have fatal consequences. Convinced that Jamaicans and the developing world in general should have access to optimal levels of cardiovascular care locally, the founders mobilized private funds, encouraged participation from a small group of local physicians and leveraged relationships and resources to fund a multi-million dollar state of the art cardiovascular centre. HIC has been active in the recruitment of the best trained and experienced cardiologists and technical staff to provide first rate care to Jamaicans and the wider Caribbean. This dream was realized in April, 2005 with the opening of the Heart Institute of the Caribbean in Kingston, Jamaica. Because of this vision, Jamaica now has its first state of the art diagnostic, treatment and prevention centre. The centre has become the model for cardiovascular care for low resource countries and is the only such facility in the English speaking Caribbean. This accomplishment has become recognized and applauded worldwide by leading thinkers, institutions and organizations such as TED where Dr. Madu was invited in 2007 as a guest speaker to discuss the HIC model as well as Veer Stichting, in the Netherlands and the USA-Africa Private Investment Forum in Washington DC where Dr. Madu was the keynote speaker in October and November 2008 respectively. Most recently Dr. Madu was a featured lecturer to the top 50 executives at the General Electric Corporation in their Healthymagination Series. HIC opened its doors for the first time and saw its first patient. HIC became the first and only for several things: The first and only Cardiovascular Clinic in Central Jamaica with a comprehansive menu of services including Echocardiography, Nuclear Medicine, Stress Testing, Holters and Ambulatory BP. First and only Myocardial Contrast Echo and Dobutamine Myocardial Contrast Stress Echo program in Jamaica. First and only Nuclear Myocardial Viability scanning in Jamaica to determine patients likely to benefit from coronary revascularization procedure. Only Pacemaker and ICD device implantation program in English speaking Caribbean run by board certified Cardiac Electrophysiologists. Only Full service Nuclear Laboratories in Jamaica with comprehensive menu of nuclear services and procedures stafed by the only Board Certified Nuclear Cardiologist in Jamaica. First and Only Emergency Cardiovascular Services in Jamaica with dedicated Ambulance Service for Cardiovascular Care. |