Dr. Tonia Onyeka is a physician anaesthetist and palliative medicine doctor whose professional foray into pain management and palliative care began in 2008 following interactions with palliative care specialists and oncologists visiting her institution from the MDAnderson Cancer Center in Texas and the Rosewell Park Cancer Institute in New York, both in the USA. The appreciation of palliative care was further kindled by her personal experiences and encounters with patients and healthcare givers during her training years as a medical student and resident doctor.

A recipient of several coveted academic scholarships and highly interested and involved in clinical research, Dr. Tonia Onyeka has seen the need to create a viable, sustainable research base in pain management and palliative care in order to advance the discipline in her home country of Nigeria and in the African continent. In particular, she has discovered the need to find ways to expand access to palliative care by the teeming population of needy patients residing in the rural areas, in order to improve their quality of life. She also believes that good quality pain research can aid in the promotion of enhanced quality of life for patients. It is this resolve that has motivated her to seek for innovative, affordable and accessible ways to do this, utilizing available resources within reach in her region.

E-MAIL ADDRESS: tonia.onyeka@unn.edu.ng

PHONE NUMBER: +2348063563223