City People Magazine has honoured Dr. Leesi Saturday Komi with the 2022 Outstanding Talent in STEM Award for Digital Health Innovation, recognising his exceptional contribution to telemedicine, digital epidemiology, and data-driven healthcare delivery in Nigeria.
Hosted annually by City People Magazine, the Outstanding Talents Awards spotlight professionals whose achievements redefine standards and contribute to national development. Chosen from over 100,000 nominations across the country and in the diaspora, Dr. Komi was selected for his pioneering role in fusing medical science with technology to improve access to quality healthcare for underserved populations.
For the Awards Committee, his work represents a rare convergence of precision and empathy. “Dr. Komi exemplifies how data and human-centred design can transform healthcare delivery,” said Wale Lawal, Senior Editor at City People. “He is building systems that turn science into service.”
Adding to his remarks, Lawal further emphasised the intent behind the recognition: “This award is about recognizing professionals who combine technical depth with measurable impact. Dr. Leesi Komi has delivered results at scale through foresight, expertise, and disciplined execution.”
A licensed medical doctor and digital health specialist, Dr. Komi has earned distinction as one of Nigeria’s leading voices in the emerging field of telehealth. His academic journey began at Lugansk State Medical University in Ukraine, where he graduated as a Doctor of Medicine (MD) with honours. From those early years, he showed an unusual interest in how technology could extend the reach of healthcare.
After returning to Nigeria, Komi channelled that vision into practical impact. As Telehealth Director at Medihause Health Services in Abuja this year, he oversaw one of the nation’s most ambitious digital-care networks. The program connected more than 42,000 patients across 27 states to licensed doctors through a multilingual teleconsultation platform. Recognising Nigeria’s cultural diversity, he ensured the platform supported Hausa, Yoruba, and Pidgin English, a move that expanded inclusivity and built trust among first-time digital users.
His achievements at Medihause extended far beyond technology deployment. Komi established structured referral pathways between virtual consultations and physical primary-health centers, ensuring that care continued beyond the screen. Over 4,700 high-risk patients benefited from this coordinated model, a remarkable outcome in a sector often hindered by follow-up gaps.
He also led training programs for more than 300 community health workers and nurses, building capacity in digital literacy, electronic medical documentation, and culturally responsive virtual care. These initiatives improved response times, strengthened patient engagement, and reduced travel-related treatment delays by 25 per cent within the pilot regions.
Before his appointment at Medihause, Dr. Komi had already established a reputation for excellence abroad. Between 2020 and 2022, he served as a Primary Care Physician at the International Multi-Profile Clinic in Kyiv, Ukraine, where he co-developed the clinic’s COVID-19 response strategy. That plan combined teleconsultation scheduling, triage algorithms, and vaccination coordination to sustain patient care during lockdowns. Under his guidance, the clinic reduced waiting times by 40 per cent while maintaining strict infection-control standards.
His cross-continental experience shaped a professional philosophy anchored on accessibility and accountability. “Healthcare in the digital era must be measured not by proximity to hospitals but by proximity to information and support,” Komi told City People after receiving his award. “Technology should make care personal again.”
The Awards Committee cited measurable outcomes as the reason for his selection, documenting gains in efficiency, improved public-health surveillance, and practical models for rural inclusion. They also highlighted his academic contributions, including his 2022 paper, “A Conceptual Model for Delivering Telemedicine to Internally Displaced Populations in Resource-Limited Regions,” published in the International
Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Growth Evaluation. The paper offered a framework now being examined by regional health organisations for adoption in humanitarian contexts.
Dr. Komi’s innovation demonstrates that STEM excellence is not limited to laboratories; it lives wherever human needs meet technological solutions. Beyond practice and research, Komi is known for his dedication to STEM education and mentorship. He has facilitated over 20 public health webinars and online training sessions focused on diseases such as Lassa fever, cervical cancer, and meningitis, reaching participants from across Nigeria and other West African countries. Through these initiatives, he combines medicine with communication, ensuring that complex scientific information is delivered in an accessible language.
He also partners with student associations and community NGOs to promote STEM literacy among young people, especially in rural areas. His mentorship approach emphasizes curiosity, discipline, and ethical leadership. “When we teach science as service, not status, we build future innovators,” he often says.
Dr. Komi’s academic background reflects both breadth and depth. In addition to his medical degree, he holds postgraduate qualifications in Epidemiology, Healthcare Management, Public Health, and Global Business Strategy, each obtained from accredited international institutions. These multi-disciplinary credentials equip him to interpret health problems through the lens of systems design, policy, and sustainability.
He is on the review board of several international journals, including the Gulf Journal of Medical Sciences and the International Medical Science Research Journal, where he contributes to peer-review processes that elevate the quality of scientific research across emerging markets.
Under his direction, Medihause implemented real-time performance dashboards and automated triage systems that cut average consultation response times from 48 minutes to 14 minutes. These metrics formed part of the evidence considered by the City People Awards Committee. “Komi’s method is disciplined and data-driven,” noted one evaluator. “He treats technology as a clinical instrument, not a corporate toy.”
Colleagues describe him as calm, analytical, and relentlessly solutions-oriented. A former teammate recalled how he would often end meetings with a simple question: “How does this help the patient?” That human-first lens, colleagues say, defines every innovation he leads.
Accepting the award, Komi expressed gratitude to City People Magazine for recognizing health innovators within the STEM space. “This honour belongs to every doctor, nurse, and engineer who believes that technology must serve compassion,” he said. “Innovation has no meaning if it leaves people behind.”
. His recognition at the 2022 City People Outstanding Talent in STEM Awards places him among Nigeria’s top STEM leaders redefining healthcare. With his combination of medical expertise, managerial insight, and technological fluency, he represents a generation proving that science can indeed be both intelligent and humane.
In honouring him, City People affirmed a growing truth in Africa’s innovation landscape: that the continent’s greatest breakthroughs will come not only from code or laboratories but from people who use knowledge to connect communities. Through his work, Dr. Leesi Komi has shown that the future of healthcare is digital but, more importantly, that it is profoundly human.
