The Northwestern University, USA, in collaboration with Infinite MediFix Nigeria Limited and iDea Nigeria, recently gathered health and technology professionals at a symposium to discuss opportunities and challenges in Nigeria’s e-health subsector.
Ibukun Fowe, MBChB, MSGH candidate of the US higher learning institute, who convened the symposium, spoke about e-health in Nigeria, current realities and future perspectives.
In her presentation, she highlighted the challenges of making e-health work in Nigeria from the standpoint of the non-availability of true health impact assessments centred on the consumer.
Quoting from a journal of medical internet research, she informed that e-health is an emerging field in the intersection of medical informatics, public health and business, and often refers to health services and information delivered or enhanced through the internet and related technologies.
“Nigeria does not seem to be alone as regards the non-availability of health impact assessments for e-health and mobile health platforms. We also have challenges on quality of health information being disseminated on e-health platforms. Who validates and verifies these pieces of health information? How accurate and reliable are they?” Fowe said.
Prior researches by medical experts suggest that health information provided by a source that is not credible is detrimental to consumer outcomes. Unless health information is complete, it is likely to mislead the consumer into making incorrect decisions.
“SMS is one of the largest platforms in Nigeria for e-health products and services. Most respondents use SMS or web based applications. Lack of information on available health applications was the largest barrier reported; people are not aware that certain platforms or applications are available for their health use,” she said.
“Most respondents also use foreign apps and this was attributed to the lack of trust in local Nigerian health applications. The above inferences were made based on the ongoing impact assessment by the Northwestern University on e-health platforms in South-west Nigeria.”
According to Fowe, out of 200 respondents so far, 15 percent only are aware of any pregnancy or child care-related health application, and 83 percent of the respondents are younger than age 40.
“Lack of information on available health applications was the most commonly reported barrier by 84 percent of respondents who were not aware of any pregnancy or child care-related health application,” she said.
She explained that although the cross-sectional survey shows high rates of safety and satisfaction by the consumer with the use of majorly foreign apps, this is still not representative of the true level of health impact.
The theme of the symposium was “The pains and gains of e-health in Nigeria – a user-centric assessment”. It was based on the nascent and emerging digital revolution of the healthcare sector by computer software and ICT.
The focus of the symposium was to ask fundamental questions such as how much impact e-health applications are making in the Nigerian health sector and how to improve the level of impact and effectiveness of these applications via a user-centric approach.
There were panel sessions and interactive sessions on how key stakeholders in the Nigerian health sector can take proactive steps to ensure that the real needs of the Nigerian people as regards e-health are prioritized and that safety and quality measures are put in place that will give users the confidence needed to use e-health applications and solutions adequately and appropriately.
Oluwaseyi Oyesainu, learning, development and talent manager, Samsung Electronics West Africa Limited, who was one of the panelists, told the audience that the whole value chain of e-health is huge and that government involvement is required for the success due to legal implications of health data.
“As a HR practitioner, we are particular about e-health. Our intention is for our employees to spend less time whenever they visit the hospital. So, we are willing to partner with organizations that can integrate e-health into their total health service,” he said.
“For example, HMO can introduce electronic cards to reduce waiting time for staff when they have to be confirmed at hospitals before receiving treatment. Front-end information can be stored on the card for HR to use for analysis and report or for when employees change hospital.”
Adeyinka Onikan, MBChB, Global Fund Malaria, said it was always easy to say in Nigeria that data for health can’t be got, but “there is data in Nigeria but it is not readily available”.
“We need to know the information they have and what they’ve done. We could start from the local government: what statistical information do they have about women and children in that area? Who are the development partners who have worked in that area, what have they done?” he said.
“A good number of development partners, NGOs, and organization’s have worked in many communities; however, unfortunately some of them will not disseminate their information openly. Maybe it is on their websites or some other place, but many of them have this information.”
Lanre Adeloye, CEO, Safermom, an online health information service for pregnant and nursing mothers, said the adoption of e-health in Nigeria was challenging, because local health facilities may not become interested in adopting the solutions until the government solidifies and implements existing health policies.
Helen Anatogwu, CEO, iDea Nigeria, raised the question of minimal domain knowledge amongst many developers of healthcare applications who do not seem to fully understand the health-care challenges needing solution in Nigeria, and advised that more applications be built that can work on feature phones and can reach millions of people at once.
“If we really want to move this agenda forward, we need the stakeholders at both the state and federal level to see the benefits of implementing e-health solutions; one of which is the cost effectiveness and cost savings that e-health brings to the general society and the health system as a whole,” said Jonah Musa, associate professor, University of Jos, Nigeria/Health Services and Outcomes Research PhD candidate, Northwestern University.
