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Meet Nigerian doctor, Oviemo Ovadje, who invented affordable blood auto-transfusion mechanism

Col Oviemo Ovadje (retd) is a Nigerian medical doctor credited with the invention of the Emergency AutoTransfusion System (EAT-SET), which is an effective, low-cost and affordable blood auto-transfusion mechanism that saves patients in developing countries.

He has patented the invention in nine countries, after pioneering this invention at the Military Hospital in Ikoyi, Lagos, where he was working at the Benin Teaching Hospital and the University Hospital in Lagos.

Dr Ovadje started working on the invention in 1989 with $120 when he realised the urgent need for a reliable and efficient blood transfusion service in their town.

The idea of the invention was conceived when Ovadje discovered many lives suffering accidents, surgeries, or medical conditions, required immediate blood transfusions.

He argued that the existing system was expensive, complicated to use, and required electricity to work, something that most parts of African countries are still lacking.

Sometimes patients had to wait for hours, which could be a matter of life and death.

With his passion to help improve the situation of things in the medical profession, Ovadje’s leadership and vision-inspired people contributed, and managed to secure a location, medical equipment, and a steady supply of blood.

In 1995, he was declared best African scientist and founded EATSET Industries, in April 2001.

The United Nation Development Program (UNDP) and the government of Nigeria funded the EAT-SET Project, with the World Health Organization (WHO) acting as the executing agency and providing assistance in the coordination of the project.

Ovadje has received many international awards including, OAU-WIPO Best African Scientist Gold Medal, Geneva Switzerland (1995), Winner Promex Medal Geneva, Switzerland (1998),

First African Winner World Health Organisation Sasakawa Gold Medal, Geneva, Switzerland, (2000), Winner ARCO Gold Medal, The Dorchester, UK, (2001) and Winner Army Council Medal, Nigeria Army, Army Headquarters, Abuja, Nigeria.

https://www.vanguardngr.com/2024/04/meet-nigerian-doctor-oviemo-ovadje-who-invented-affordable-blood-auto-transfusion-mechanism/

Brigadier General Dr oviemo ovadje in 1989, solved the problem of blood salvage from body cavities by pioneering and creating a design the EATSET to replace and improve on the gauze filtration technique as practiced in developing countries. The EATSET device has been described as a low cost and an appropriate technology relevant to the needs of developing countries.

Its development is part of the global effort at ensuring blood safety. The device is made up of a transparent rigid capsule, incorporating a V – shaped micro – filter and its part arrangements allow its adaptation to a manual source of low vacuum.

Brigadier General Dr oviemo ovadje, as a medical doctor undergoing specialist training in Nigeria, observed that a lot of women during pregnancy in developing countries die from internal haemorrhage (bleeding) arising from ruptured ectopic pregnancy.

The condition is common in developing countries and the absence of a well organized blood transfusion service is a factor in the increased morbidity and mortality in this group of women, many of whom cannot afford the cost of procuring blood from the laboratories. The gauze filtration and scooping technique adopted by earlier doctors did not seem to be attractive to most practioners who considered the technique messy and unsafe.

The initial skepticism that greeted the simplicity of the EATSET and it’s lack of sophistication led to the invitation of Dr. Watson Williams by the World Health Organization as consultant at the instance of the UNDP in its response to a request by Brigadier General Dr oviemo ovadje for financial support to enable him refine the crude device through a North _ South collaboration.

The EATSET was used in its primitive but sterile form by Brigadier General Dr oviemo ovadje to save intraperitoneal blood from 12 patients as presented at the world congress of the International Committee of Military Medicine (ICMM) in Augsburg, Germany in June 1994, and Published in the journal of the ICMM in 1995.


The UNDP sponsored the refinement of Brigadier General Dr oviemo ovadje’s EATSET in 1994, under the executive of the World Health Organization. By April 1995, the equipment was refined and in-vitro trials were conducted successfully at the University of Lagos Teaching Hospital by Brigadier General Dr oviemo ovadje, Mr. Fell and Professor Asalor, Professor Akinsete and Professor Dorothy Foulkes-Crabbe, (Chairman of the African Chapter of the World Federation of societies of Anesthesiologist.) (WFSA) both approved of the work.

Brigadier General Dr oviemo ovadje organized an International Scientific Conference and Workshop (April 29 – 31 1995 sponsored by the UNDP, WHO and the Federal Ministry of Health to determine the degree of the problem of heamorrhage in pregnant women in developing countries. About 430 medical professionals, (Doctors, Nurses, Hospital, Administrators, Scientists and Industrialist attended from Nigeria, Ghana, Switzerland, United Kingdom and India. His presentation of techniques of auto-transfusion and the EATSET to medical doctors undergoing specialist training at an OPEC funded conference at the University of Lagos Teaching Hospital (1990) and during a seminar organized by the Commonwealth Defence Science Organization at the Defence Headquarters in 1991 contributed in endearing the EATSET to many of his professional colleagues.

Brigadier General Dr oviemo ovadje’s work in the management of ectopics in developing countries was publicly acknowledged by Government. UNDP and WHO whose awareness of the need for a simplified, low cost device such as the EATSET in developing countries increased. Brigadier General Dr oviemo ovadje won the 1995 OAU-WIPO Invention Award in recognition of his significant contribution to African innovation in the field of Health Care. A Gold Medal was presented to Brigadier General Dr oviemo ovadje during the OAU summit in Addis-Ababa.

Prof Morel’s report from the Geneva University Hospital Cantonal confirmed the need for the EATSET and of its usefulness in clinical practice. Brigadier General Dr oviemo ovadje in 1996 won the National Council of Health and Ministerial Award for professional excellence and for his contribution to health technology

Brigadier General Dr oviemo ovadje won the World Bank institute award in February 2000 after he was classified as one of the top 339 finalists at the developmental market place in Washington DC.

He became the first African to win the World Health Organisation Sasakawa Award in the year 2000.

He won the national honour of Member of order of the Niger MON.

I got this from Naptu2's Diary.