All these are made possible through the use of computers and other digital devices that are connected to available sensors that could diagnose patients and display clinical records on certain ailments. At the end of every test, the doctor will immediately communicate the patient who may be some distance away and advise the patient on the type of drug to use and its dosage. Speaking at the third annual national conference on telemedicine which held recently in Lagos, Olajide Adebola, President, Society for Telemedicine and eHealth in Nigeria, revealed that in developing country like Nigeria, there is quantitative and qualitative deficiencies in the delivery of health services and this have led to inequality of access to basic health services in communities and cities.
In his words: “healthcare is a complex enterprise, highly dependent on information for a variety of clinical and managerial decisions. However, information and communication technology (ICT) resources are essential for the operational support and management of health services, healthcare organizations, facilities and program.”
Meanwhile, Afolabi Leshi, a physician with Lagos State Teaching hospital (LUTH), who represented the Minister of Health, Babatunde Oshotimehin at the occasion, said “considering the rapid growth in mobile telephony of over 67 million users, mHealth will become an economic tool to actually drive eHealth activities in Nigeria. He added that “eHealth is an option for us in Nigeria to remedy the human resource for health crisis, failing health system, inaccessibility and non- affordability of existing services to the poor and vulnerable in the rural areas”.
Also speaking at the conference, Yewande Thorpe, a member of the board of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), encouraged Nigerians to embrace the use of telemedicine. According to her, “in Europe, telemedicine has been found to save lives, improve efficiency and benefit economy. Case studies of already implemented or piloted telemedicine applications indicate proven benefits at different levels. Management of patients through tele-monitoring of heart conditions has been found to reduce mortality rates by an estimated 20 per cent.”
“Better clinical outcomes”, she added, “have been reported through the procedure and that the time health professionals spend on patients is reduced by 30 to 70 per cent due to tele-monitoring without the patients being physically present in the hospital”.
Thorpe said in a situation where the ratio of health workers to the population of people seeking medical attention was far below WHO standards, telemedicine and eHealth offer excellent potential for ensuring equitable distribution of health services to the nation’s teeming population, especially in the rural areas. The situation, she said, could even be further im
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Alexander Chiejina
Quelle/Source: Business Day, 24.09.2009
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