General News
Achieving Better Patient Outcomes with Artificial Intelligence
By Dr.Simon Kos, Microsoft Chief Medical Officer
Nurse Florence Nightingale may be most well-known as the British Army’s lady with the lamp, assiduously conducting night rounds and attending to the wounded by candle light.
But by demonstrating the link between poor sanitary conditions and high mortality rates in hospitals, it was her pioneering use of data collection and visualisation that still resonates today.
In 2018, medicine faces a different set of challenges, with longer life expectancies and population growth increasing the number of patients suffering with chronic conditions requiring ongoing care.
This has led to the cost of delivering healthcare increasing faster than GDP and quickly becoming unsustainable.
Transforming delivery with data
Over 160 years might have passed since Florence Nightingale’s day, but addressing these challenges still depends on data.
By using it to unlock valuable insights, there’s an incredible opportunity to both accelerate medical breakthroughs and improve patient care.
Over the past decade, a great deal of focus has been on digitizing the sector’s records.
But while this has been a success improving performance from an operational stand point, we’ve yet to see it really transform the way we deliver services to patients.
At present, health is data rich and information poor. By applying cognitive technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) to this data, the sector can shift from traditional reactive treatments to a more proactive health system based on prevention, wellness, faster diagnosis and precision medicine.
Nicholas McQuire, VP, Enterprise Research at analyst firm CCS Insight, sees AI “radically transform the health care industry over the next five years.
AI will bring important improvements in operational effectiveness, care delivery and above all, patient outcomes.
It will also be a vital tool in helping solve some of our most challenging health-related problems, not least how to balance restricted budgets and reduced workforces against the growth of chronic conditions.”
Providing personalized treatment
Evolving approaches to cancer illustrate the way in which AI can revolutionise healthcare across the whole sector.
Historically considered an acute terminal illness, medical knowledge is improving to the point where most cancers are classified as highly treatable conditions.
That said, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) between 30 and 50 percent of cancer deaths could be avoided with prevention, early detection and treatment.
With the total economic impact of cancer costing the global economy over an estimated $1.16 trillion a year, we’re increasingly turning to the power of AI to address this issue, with oncology one of the most advanced areas of precision medicine.
Project InnerEye, used by Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, provides a good example, applying two core branches of AI, machine learning and computer vision, for the analysis of radiological images.
According to a study from TMC, the UK currently has less than five radiologists per 100,000 people, and will struggle to cope with demand for scans in the short, medium and long term.
Designed to identify tumours in a matter of seconds, Project InnerEye can help speed up diagnosis, as well as improve the delivery of treatments like radiotherapy, by providing exact delineation between cancerous tissue and healthy anatomy.
In addition, it promises to provide better monitoring of disease progression during treatments so they can be adjusted in line with how patients respond.
This has the potential to result in more targeted and effective chemotherapy with fewer side effects for patients.
These applications provide us with an opportunity to transition from a predominantly experimental approach to the ability to be incredibly precise.
Advances in genetic medicine now include genome sequencing of individual patients and tumours, allowing personalized diagnosis and treatment.
While progress in this field is encouraging, due to the complex range of genetic mutations responsible for cancer, the specialist skills needed to interpret genome information, and the high volume of new cancer cases each year, it’s not currently scalable to use this for every patient.
This has seen organisations like St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital turn to the cloud to facilitate data sharing with global research communities.
Working with Microsoft Research’s genomics group, computational biologists from the hospital developed an online platform capable of managing vast quantities of anonymised genomic data.
By comparing raw genomic data with reference genomes to identify where they differ, researchers hope to identify the variants responsible for cancers, and make progress toward eventually finding a cure.
Helping patients take control of their care
A key objective of these AI initiatives is minimising unnecessary and costly hospital admissions and readmissions.
Discovering only eight percent of heart surgery patients were following doctor’s orders upon leaving hospital, the Helsinki and Uusimaa Hospital District (HUS) wanted to tackle this issue head-on by creating a number of online ‘hubs’ for management of remote care plans.
These range from monitoring use of medication and proscribed therapies, to providing virtual consultations with specialists.
HUS believes AI has a central role to play in optimising these kinds of virtual services.
Visa Honkanen, Director of Strategic Development for HUS, explains “At the moment, we have no way of analyzing what’s happening, what’s useful … and how people are accessing and experiencing these services.
By using machine learning to analyze the data, we will be able to direct patients to the right place right away, and also see which of our digital tools work best, abandon the tools that aren’t working, and focus on the most promising ones.”
Ensuring responsible use of AI
While AI presents many benefits for healthcare, there are important considerations that need to be taken into account.
Former Director-General of the WHO Dr Margaret Chan warns “Artificial intelligence is a new frontier for the health sector…The potential of AI in health care is huge, but so is the need to take some precautions”.
From a data management perspective, delivering real value with AI depends on access to a bank of patient information, a sensitive resource that needs to be safeguarded.
The EU’s new GDPR guidelines provide a great benchmark standard to start from, however, medical professionals, regulators and policy makers will need to address the issue of“secondary”uses for health data i.e. usage not relating to the patients direct care.
Ensuring that privacy and data protections are systematically implemented will be vital for continued improvement of healthcare and public health.
At Microsoft, we were the first major cloud provider to incorporate an international code of practice for cloud privacy, ISO/IEC 27018 and we also back those protections with strong contractual commitments.
Like Florence Nightingale founding modern nursing in 19th century, today technology and health care are collaborating to create a modern medical sector fit for the 21st.
These developments will create a hybrid workforce where doctors and AI work together to solve medicine’s greatest challenges.
By helping the public play a more active, informed role in the care relationship, and empowering health professionals with the best information, AI will drive services that are more effective, efficient and accessible than ever before.
Police in Abuja have uncovered a criminal group making fake diplomatic and government number plates.
Ahmed Sanusi, commissioner of Police FCT, stated this during a press briefing on Friday.
He explained that criminals use these fake plates to dodge security checks and enter restricted areas.
The investigation started soon after Sanusi took office.
He noticed too many unauthorized cars driving around with official government and diplomatic tags.
“I immediately ordered a comprehensive investigation into this disturbing trend,” Sanusi said. He noted that these individuals use the plates as a cover to commit crimes and avoid arrest.
The police have already arrested several people caught using the fake plates.
They have also figured out who is making them.
The manufacturers operate outside Abuja, and police are actively hunting them down.
Sanusi kept their names secret so they would not flee.
He stressed that this is a highly profitable illegal business.
Buyers pay between N500,000 and N1.7 million for a single fake plate.
“This will tell you that they are making such huge expenditure because they have an agenda,” Sanusi explained.
“Now they will face punishment that is bigger than both the cost they incur and the agenda they are planning.”
The commissioner urged residents to report any cars with suspicious diplomatic plates.
He reminded the public that real diplomatic tags follow a very specific format.
A diplomatic number plate in Nigeria is a special vehicle identification tag issued to foreign embassies, high commissions, and accredited international diplomats.
Gavi has approved $500 million to strengthen Nigeria’s immunisation programme, primary healthcare services and long-term vaccine financing.
The move followed high-level discussions between Professor Muhammad Ali Pate, coordinating minister of Health and Social Welfare, ]and Dr. Sania Nishtar, chief executive officer, Gavi in Abuja.
The funding, approved under the Gavi 6.0 programme, will support Nigeria’s efforts to accelerate routine immunisation, sustain polio eradication, expand HPV vaccination, strengthen primary healthcare services, and improve long-term vaccine financing.
Speaking during the meeting, Pate said Nigeria was strengthening its partnership with Gavi to accelerate immunisation, expand primary healthcare services, and ensure sustainable financing for vaccines.
He welcomed Gavi’s country-focused reforms, including the introduction of a predictable five-year funding envelope.
Pate said the US$500 million allocation will enable Nigeria to plan more effectively and deliver life-saving vaccines to more children and vulnerable populations.
The minister also revealed that quarterly visits to primary healthcare centreshad increased from about 10 million in 2023 to more than 45 million, reflecting significant progress in revitalising the country’s primary healthcare system.
Pate welcomed the announcement of a US$600 million pledge by the United States government to Gavi, describing it as a strong endorsement of the alliance’s leadership and the global value of vaccines.
He also commended Nishtar for prioritising Nigeria and praised the closer coordination among Gavi, World Health Organisation (WHO), UNICEF, World Bank, Gates Foundation, and other development partners, describing it as a model that has improved efficiency and aligned support with Nigeria’s health sector reforms.
The minister expressed appreciation to Gavi and its partners for their continued technical and financial support, while calling on state governments to invest more in healthcare and immunisation to complement federal efforts.
For many women, financial independence means the freedom to provide for their families and build a better future. Yet, this remains out of reach due to limited access to opportunities, business support, and secure payment solutions.
Like millions of women in Nigeria determined to be financially independent, Pricillia started with a single PalmPay POS terminal, and as an agent, every successful transaction provided a commission which brought her one step closer to achieving her dream.
Through consistency, discipline, and support from the payment platform, she reinvested her earnings and eventually opened her own provision store.
“I started as just a PalmPay agent with one POS. The consistency of the platform gave me the confidence to expand. With the income I earned, I was able to open my own provision shop.” Priscilla said.
For Priscilla, PalmPay was more than a payment platform. Its secure payment infrastructure gave her the confidence to serve her customers, build trust, and grow her income.
Today, Pricillia has joined the statistics of SMEs powering Nigeria’s economy and PalmPay continues to support her daily operations, helping her receive payments, as she works towards her next business milestone. Her journey is a reminder that when women have access to secure financial tools and opportunities, they can build lasting economic independence.
Speaking on Pricillia’s journey, Femi Hanson, Head of Marketing, PalmPay said: “Providing a secure platform that users can trust, whether for everyday payments or high-value transactions, is central to our vision of advancing financial inclusion. Priscilla’s story reflects our commitment to supporting the ambitions of Nigerians by providing a platform they can rely on to grow their finances. After all, seamless banking begins with security, and every successful transaction reinforces the trust our users place in us.”
Priscilla stands among thousands of PalmPay agents nationwide who are helping to expand financial access across Nigeria while earning commissions to create sustainable sources of income for themselves.
Every payment tells a story. It begins with trust, the confidence that your money is secure and that financial services are accessible. And when that opportunity reaches women, it creates ripple effects that transform families, strengthen communities, and drive economic growth.
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