As far as I can remember, I always said that I wanted to become a Medical Doctor, not to take care of healthy rich people, but to help those in my home continent who sometimes make kilometers before they can meet a good doctor. Bring close to them care that could enable them to focus on their daily life, activities and dream big. The best way to do this for me is to allow them to avoid falling sick.
The best way to do this for me is to allow them to avoid falling sick.
My dream came true. I became a Medical Doctor and my first position as a young clinician was in Tambacounda, east region of Senegal. Tambacounda was definitely not the Bahamas of medical doctors at that time. It was probably seen as an Alcatraz: atmospheric conditions were hard (we could reach 42°C and more daily), there was no entertainment in the city and at that time, it took about 8 hours to reach Dakar, the main city where almost everything was coming from: drugs, food, letters, etc.
But in Tambacounda, people were in need of good doctors. So, I knew I was at the right place. I enjoyed the years spent in Tambacounda as a young practitioner. I really did. Allowing poor people to pay their medical fees by sending one of their son to clean a section of the hospital for a month, because that’s the only resource they had. I learned a lot being there: new languages (Fula, Bambara), the power of a team work (as a young doctor, I was fully involved with the nurses, and was giving regular training/courses to equip the team).
The mortality level of the hospital dropped drastically after a while.
I thought I found my Eldorado. But life decided otherwise. I had to return back to Dakar, the main city in Senegal. It was hard leaving behind that “achievement”. Then I was contacted by my first boss, who allowed me to be trained on clinical trials and exposed me to the job. After years of trainings and field experience, I was comforted in the fact that if at Tambacounda I could reach/see 30-50 patients a day, with clinical trials, with an essential medication discovered and made available to the market, I could be able to help millions of people in need.
That’s how from daily clinical practice I became a Clinical Research Associate…