Dominiek Viaene is the founder and owner of Protex Healthcare West Africa, a pacesetter in wound, burn and scar care with headquarters in Belgium and branches in Sub-Saharan Africa, which include Nigeria and Ethiopia. His company has been a major trendsetter in the Nigerian heath sector since 2019, especially in wound, burn and scar care. Viaene spoke with select journalists at the sidelines of the recent Third Nigerian Belgian Chamber of Commerce Business Breakfast Summit, where he made a presentation. He spoke on the vision of his company for Nigeria’s healthcare delivery system, the effects of brain drain on the sector and other crucial issues. The Guardian’s OPEYEMI BABALOLA was there. Excerpts:
Can you introduce yourself?
My name is Dominiek Viaene, a Belgian citizen. I am the Founder, major owner and CEO of Protex Healthcare Group. We have our headquarters in Roeselare, Belgium. We have branches in The Netherlands, U.S., Qatar, Abuja (Nigeria) and Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) and work with distributors in the Republic of South Africa, Kenya and Tanzania for the African continent.
How and when was Protex Healthcare West Africa established?
Protex Healthcare West Africa was established by inspiration to action. I started my career in 1986 in the fast-moving consumer products sector at UNILEVER in Antwerp, Belgium; selling margarine and frying oil. I spent 15 years in international advertising and marketing and sales.
In 2001, I was helping a small company in Belgium making pressure garments and silicone sheets for scar treatment in burns patients. The company had created problems by using patient pictures owned by doctors without permission, in their advertising. They sent me to the doctors to solve this issue.
During my visit to the Belgian University Hospital, an emergency ambulance brought a three-year-old boy with second and third degree burns on his head and shoulders into the specialised burn centre. The doctors allowed me to follow them and the nurses all evening long to show how they treated burn patients. When I came out in the night, I asked myself: What am I doing with my life, selling things which I don’t believe in? My conclusion was clear: I see myself as a small firefly in this world, but a lot of fireflies can still make a difference for those that need better care, saving lives and limbs. I started looking for new accessible medical therapies for scar care and wound care, making sure everybody could use them. As of that moment, I wanted to do something which would be effective in the world of wound and burn care and not sit back and relax with a nice salary in fast moving consumer goods. That is how I started the idea of investing in the medical world. This led to the formation of Protex Healthcare first, followed by Protex Healthcare West Africa.
There are many problems in the medical world in Europe and worldwide that still have no real solution. Furthermore, many practitioners in the medical world too often go for fast profits and existing protocols (the road of the lowest effort – which is a human reflex) rather than investing in the long-term welfare of patients, falling back to standard protocols that are well invoiced, but often little effective due to lack of continuous research and adequate improvements. However, good hospitals, good doctors, good nurses always put the patient first, will try to understand the patient’s problem first, and then try to solve it, no matter what infrastructure and knowledge they have available. They are the ones that actively contribute to the improvement of the healthcare systems in their countries. No good therapy without profound diagnostics; no better medical knowledge if you stick to the past that can go back decades in time. This plays as well in developed countries as in developing countries such as Nigeria. Never has the need and the ability for continuous improvement of both techniques and education been so reachable and enormous as it is today. I decided to try to change the narrative. I want to give the greatest good to a greater number of people by bringing and developing more effective solutions and therapies to our target markets.
Why did you decide to invest in Nigeria?
The idea of investing in Nigeria came when I was invited in 2018 to Calabar as a guest Speaker by the Nigerian Association of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (NAPRAS). I was to speak on our discoveries in wounds and scar healing that none of the big companies had brought forward. It was a very low key and efficient conference, with a lot of driven doctors on that conference that still tried to make a difference for the patients even with very little financial means and without access to the newest techniques such as negative pressure wound therapy. I was the only white man during the conference which had about 2500 doctors, which initially felt strange but that changed rapidly.
During the conference, I decided to assess the situation on ground, and I went out to visit several Teaching and General Hospitals. One cannot work in an environment when you do not know what is happening in that market. We discovered there are massive challenges in the areas of wounds, burns and dialysis, for the treatment of patients with Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD)
One out of seven Nigerians appears to have kidney problems. This is most likely due to the number one healthcare problem in Nigeria – hypertension; the growing importance of diabetes and the generations-long usage of bad pharmaceutical products imported from all parts of the world, but mostly far East.
Very often, the major problems in the health of Nigerians are connected. If you have hypertension, you will get diabetes. After long-time diabetes, you get kidney problems. If you have a serious kidney problem you will need to be treated by means of dialysis, get a kidney transplant or you might die because your kidney will no longer be able to remove the endotoxins in your body.
There is a very big need for dialysis machines and for quality treatment in dialysis inside Nigeria. At present, there are not enough quality machines in the Nigerian market; the best form of treatment – Hemodiafiltration – (HDF) – has not become the standard yet, leading to better quality of life and longer life for patients. This is the reason Protex Healthcare West Africa has chosen to work with Fresenius Medical Care. These German machines offer by far the best quality treatment for patients, and the highest degree of security in treatment for doctors and nurses.
The difference in outcome of existing treatments is massive between Nigeria/Africa and Europe. Why would a patient with CKD in Europe have a minimum therapy life of 10 years survival after start of HDF (up to 34 years after start of therapy), and an African/Nigerian patient have a life expectancy of only six to 12 months, even with the same type of machines? Why would the African continent see too many patients that are constantly feeling low energetic during their treatment, which mostly means that the purification of their blood is not okay due to non-optimal quality of treatment consumables and protocols.
As a health care company driven by innovation and patient improvement for all patients worldwide, we want to do something about this.
Major reasons for this difference in outcome of dialysis in Africa/Nigeria compared to other countries have been, according to research, insufficient knowledge of the potential of the dialysis HDF machines, no sufficient training of the nursing and technical staff, no systematic use of the correct consumables and therapies.
It is not because you chose a consumable that is cheaper that it does the thing it needs to do. On the contrary, cheap consumables often are synonyms of low quality, leading to low quality treatment and short treatment cycles before the patient dies due to insufficient filtration of their blood. Protex Healthcare West Africa wants to change this and bring good equipment, consumables, accurate technical service and education leading to longer survival and better quality of life for the CKD patients to the Nigerian market. We believe all patients worldwide that suffer from CKD should have the same survival rates, no matter which continent they come from.
A negative point inside Nigeria is that dialysis is expensive due to the evolution of the naira compared to the € and the USD. Contrary to most of the other Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries, there is no reimbursement for CKD, not even for children. CKD is a serious disease and requires serious solutions, with good national protocols and with access for all to decent treatment, even for the very poor of society. There are rumours that the Nigerian government has plans to try to change this.
How is Protex Healthcare going to make a difference in Nigeria?
We believe good health care is for everyone. Solutions are often very easy to access but they never reach the people. We are working with good tools, good education and good service as a basic offer of what we do and want to reach out to local, state and federal governments, insurance companies, big companies to join forces to achieve better results for everyone. There is also a need for better and faster diagnosis in every field, from hypertension over diabetes up to cancer diagnostics to make sure we can treat the patient where we can still cure them instead of going to palliative care only.
We plan to organise several dialysis training for nurses beginning from December 2025. Professional and very experienced training nurses are coming from Germany and Botswana. It will be an in-depth intensive training. We will train nurses who will then train their colleagues. We will do that frequently next year. We plan to do the same training four times a year.
We are bringing specific products such as VACUTEX to close hard-to-heal wounds, and which is affordable by Nigerian standards. This specialised wound dressing replaces portable negative pressure machines, and does not have the problems of vacuum closure, cables, batteries and canisters, but it still does at least the same job and heals diabetic foot ulcers, venous leg ulcers and tropical ulcers (Burulli, Burton). Healing those wounds fast and good prevents a lot of amputations, which we all know the consequences of. By creating good products and making them accessible for doctors and nurses, we will immediately have an impact on the health of the people in all different classes of the population.
We dream of setting up a 360° digital Point of Care Diagnostics centre in Nigeria to see how we can bring better and faster diagnostics to a large part of the population. Now, I am convinced that too many people die in Nigeria or other SSA countries without knowing what they are dying off. Early diagnosis will tell you when you are at risk or not and will allow you to get adequate treatment just in time to heal you.
Since 2022, I have spent a lot of time in Abuja, Lagos, Port Harcourt, Calabar, Uyo and Abeokuta to see a little of this immense country, and to learn how we can help improve therapy and save lives for children and adults, whether they are factory employees or governors, inside the country’s borders. My first two Nigerian doctors/friends, which I still call my mentors of healthcare in Nigeria, are Dr. Ferdinand O Ijikeye, Consulting Plastic Surgeon, University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin, Edo State and Dr. Vinishhe Y Sabo, Chief Plastic Surgeon, Gwagwalada Medical Centre, Federal Capital Territory (FCT) who have been using our products for the past years. These mentors made me fall in love with this lovely country, Nigeria, which has all the assets to become the economic tiger of the African continent.
Dr. Ijikeye was the first one to use our products for hard-to-heal wounds and testified about its efficiency. He told us he could prevent a lot of amputations. This kind of added value is why I am in the medical sector. Protex Healthcare West Africa is still very small, but we make a big difference in the field. We have been investing in the last three years in our warehouse and technical service building; offices and training facilities are now opening for Nigerian doctors and nurses.
For the average Nigerian, it is expensive to get medical attention. We want to find effective and short-term solutions inside Nigeria to wounds that do not heal such as burns and diabetic foot wounds. We also want to bring kidney treatment of the quality level of Europe but more affordable.
Looking strategically at Nigeria and most of the African countries, we see that the big western companies – often stock market driven – pulled back out of a lot of African countries because they feel they cannot make enough money or do not want to adapt to the African markets with its needs for constant training and support. This is a chance for small companies like ours. We are knowledge, training and education driven and still provide the sales of goods and services.
A few weeks ago, in one of the best hospitals in Lagos, as we were talking about our products, the doctors and nurses reacted saying:”Why did we not hear about this? It saves time and money. It is easy to use; we don’t have to hospitalise the patient; the patient remains mobile…” We have a lot of solutions that are working in Europe and in the Americas and that are also applicable in Africa. They are based on well-researched issues that are universal, and they function independently of development levels of countries. We just need to spread more knowledge to more people inside this wonderful country.
What is your blueprint for turning Nigeria’s healthcare sector around?
Our coming to Nigeria is to contribute to revolutionising the Nigerian health sector. We intend to train the nurses and doctors. We intend to increase the quality level of treatment inside Nigeria to European standards, but not to European prices. For wound and burn care we have a long history in Europe, U.S. and Australia and our products are easy to use everywhere in the world. For diabetic foot wounds and for venous ulcers, we can close 95 per cent of all the wounds between eight to 12 weeks – everywhere in the world. We can also prevent the large volume of planned amputations. We have been doing this for the past 25 years and it works. But we also want to develop new products inside Nigeria, tailor-made for sub-Sahara Africa health conditions. In the field of burn and scar care, a lot of products have been developed for Europe and North America because they had more money to invest. But they are not optimal for hot and moist climates. This is why they need to be improved. We are determined to put the interest of the patient first, because this is our main reason for existence and our future. Healing the patient is our diamond standard. The only one!
We run our business from the heart, and we live by the grace of the patients and by taking good care of them. This is also why we need excellent quality of staff that are also willing to continuously improve their knowledge and make the difference in support of those doctors and nurses that are dealing with all patients every minute of their day.
How can the federal and state governments improve the Nigerian healthcare delivery system?
First and foremost, government should be deeply committed to the Health Insurance Scheme and the health care quality standards, which have been constituted already in part. Government does indeed take the health of the people seriously and has a very good strategic vision on how to improve this, but the implementation is difficult, takes a long time and is complex, with many people involved directly or indirectly. Joining forces with private companies like ours can improve the implementation results. At present, there is still very little reimbursement for medical expenses and very little healthcare standards.
Health is not a one shop affair. It is very complex, and it is impossible to build a fully scaled healthcare system in one go. Both the federal and state government should synergise with private and public hospitals in terms of collaboration and upgrading health facilities and work first on a minimal care insurance to allow the first care in a faster and better way. Diagnostics centres should be deployed in every state, including a first line care centre.
Have you approached the government or some individuals for collaboration?
We have been exploring such angles and are looking into the first cooperation agreements with high ranked and experienced individuals with a heart for the people of their country. We believe in the long run it will work out well, but we can use extra support.
Many Nigerian doctors and nurses have left the country for greener pastures; what advice do you have for the Nigerian government?
Many Nigerian doctors and nurses are having prominent positions in the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada. All those doctors from the Nigerian Diaspora have all massive knowledge and mostly very good reputation and are surely willing to give something back to their country, and to their upcoming students that want to become doctors or nurses. They can help to recover from the brain drain of the past. We plan to create a top-level infrastructure for them to work and to teach, but we cannot do this alone. Therefore, we want both state and federal governments to help us create the treatment environment where they can work according to their high everyday standard in their regular work. Education is always based on the principle that you must try to learn from those that are better than you are at present. You never learn anything new from somebody that does not want to share or does not have the knowledge you need.
In five years time, how do you see Protex Heath Care West Africa?
We have started in Abuja. We will create more rooms for training. In the next one or two years we will also move to Lagos, Kano and Port Harcourt/Calabar. We will try to contribute to the elaboration of in-country research centres, and we will train more nurses and doctors to European standards of care, since this is still the most complete and most affordable model of healthcare structures.
What’s your philosophy of life?
My parents, of whom I am very still very proud, although they passed away a long time ago, taught me the most important points of Human Intelligence (HI), morals and values, compared to the rise of AI at present that mostly rationalises without emotions or feelings. I love to live and I love to help, for everybody that needs help, and where they need help (close to their homes), and I have learned a long time ago that without hard and long work, nothing gets done.
I cannot accept the injustice that Africans, in particular Nigerians, would not have access to decent healthcare. This is why we are investing here. Of course, we need to have a profitable business to be able to keep investing. But the patient still always comes first, and what we know today in the medical field is constantly changing and improving. That means we need to be on top of what we do, every day, everywhere and in view of better lives for our patients.
