IME originated from a series of medical missions to Africa organized by Basil Medical Corporation (BMC), a U.S.-based company founded in 1991. Our focus was on procuring and supplying medical equipment and technology products. In response to requests from host governments, African-American physicians were recruited by BMC to travel to various African nations. They shared their expertise with local healthcare professionals, offered medical treatment, and contributed to regional capacity-building efforts.

The missions were successful and showed the positive outcomes that can be achieved when African and African-American communities tackle healthcare challenges, improving Africans’ overall health in the homeland and those in the Diaspora. This success made the governments of the participating African nations desire BMC’s support in coordinating conferences to establish frameworks for regional collaboration addressing health challenges. 

The inaugural regional conference took place in southern Africa, preceded by a Steering Committee Meeting at the InterContinental in Lusaka, Zambia. This meeting was hosted and co-sponsored by the Ministry of Health of Zambia and Mikwa Investments Limited of Zambia. The second Steering Committee Meeting, hosted and sponsored by the Ministry of Health and Social Services of Namibia, was held in Windhoek, Namibia, on November 15, 1996.

The committee, comprising representatives from 12 African nations’ ministries of health, convened to determine a name for their upcoming event and agreed upon the “International Medical Exchange Conference.” Subsequently, International Medical Exchange, Inc. was officially incorporated as a nonprofit organization on January 16, 1997.