e-Health, the Lagos state Example

Assessing and improving the quality of health care is still a low priority, both for policy makers in Nigeria, and for technical agencies like doctors and health care officials.
The long and successive neglect of quality of care including absence of reliable documentation and health information systems; and poor funding has made people lose faith in public health institutions.
Today, majority of Nigerians use private health care providers while on the only the indigent use the public hospitals.
But Lagos state government seeing that e-Health can serve as a vehicle for the transformation of health conditions of the people of the state has embarked upon the e-Health project. This is in acknowledgment of the need for adequate health information storage and delivery.
Working with the ministry of Health in collaboration with the ministry of Science, the state is implementing interactive hospital information system software & technology in some of the state owned hospital facilities.
Governor Raji Fashola championed the electronic charting for the state health system which was to start with a pilot scheme at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, (LASUTH), Ikeja.
The Lagos State Health Management Information System (HMIS) project is a broad based modular Hospital Administration System Database solution that allows the operational procedures and stream of patients in a health facility to be coordinated thus ensuring prompt and effective healthcare delivery.
The project is being put into operation in phases to involve all state owned secondary and tertiary health facilities. The pilot phase commenced fully on the 5th January, 2009 at the LASUTH, General Hospitals Isolo and Lagos and is currently in its second phase which involves the General Hospitals in Alimosho, Badagry, Ikorodu, Epe, Somolu, Surulere, Gbagada, Orile Agege, Ajeromi and Lagos Island Maternity Hospital.
We are happy that the ensures that any patient in a Lagos State hospital will be registered on a central computer server with the information readily available to the doctors treating a patient, who will have simultaneous access to the up-to-date medical records and treatment information.
The links to the diagnostic modules ensures doctors online can order tests while results can be returned via the same channel. Critical minutes saved by this prompt information availability will save a lot of lives as will be shown in statistical data to be maintained.
The reporting and statistics has also been built in and will be able to conform to international standards. The solution is web based and is being complemented with a wide area computer network linking all the hospitals. Authorization levels would be determined for all relevant workers to ensure patient confidentiality.
Kudos, Lagos state