Nigeria’s eHealth Initiative

Copying and pasting latest e-health technology from developed countries may not be the best way forward for health services in Nigeria.

The country needs to develop home grown healthcare practice supported by electronic processes and communication.

eHealth encompass a range of services or systems that are at the edge of medicine/healthcare and information technology, including: enabling the communication of patient data between different healthcare professionals (GPs, specialists etc.);
 
eHealth removes the need to process paper-based health examination reports, and allows panel physicians to record a visa applicant's health information electronically.

This includes their health examination results, digital chest X-rays, specialist reports, and biometric photographs.

There is also access to prescribing options, printing prescriptions to patients and sometimes electronic transmission of prescriptions from doctors to pharmacists as well as physical and psychological treatments at a distance, including telemonitoring of patients’ functions.

One of the major problems identified in healthcare services is the lack of ICT standards especially for interoperability related to the eHealth area.

That why we support the first Nigeria eHealth Summit expected to provide platform for stakeholders to brainstorm and strategise on how to develop and invest in this sector.

The Nigeria eHealth Summit, part of the 2013 West African Health (WAH) Conference & Exhibition run from Tuesday to Thursday this week.

According to organizers, the objectives of the summit are, “to improve understanding of current e-Health ecosystem in healthcare in Nigeria – from government and private sector perspectives; identify key opportunities and constraints in leveraging technology to improve health care delivery in the country.”

We therefore expect the summit to come up with a blueprint for the private sector led e-Health in Nigeria.