The Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Professor Akin Abayomi, says real-time data is very key in decision-making and health management.
He made this known during the opening ceremony of a three-day seminar organised by Cranium Integrated Solution Ltd, which had the theme, “Transforming Health Management in Africa, The Power of Technology”.
Prof. Abayomi said that real-time data helps to divert resources to where it is needed.
He said that Lagos State had learned that it was imperative to apply the concept to the entire spectrum of healthcare management.
“Healthcare data is considered to be sensitive personal data. And therefore, you need to go through a process of being certified compliant by the national agencies and authorities that regulate data collection such that we are managing data in a safe way.
“And people who are not authorised to access that data, don’t have access to them. It requires a lot of understanding of data protection infrastructure to make sure that data is safe, he said.
“When we have your data as a patient in Lagos state, it means that you trust us to be able to hold on to that data, to make it only accessible to people that need it, when they need it, for your care and nothing else other than care and research.
“To be in a system where you are collecting patient data, you have to be able to have those things in place where data is safe, the right regulatory and governance environment.
“And then, the technology that moves that data around so that our healthcare providers have access to your data.
“When you are sitting in front of a healthcare provider, that he has access to your digital data in a protected way such that it improves patient care delivery, reduces waste and loss, and generates income,” he said.
The Convener and Co-Founder of the seminar, Engr. Kunle Adesida of Cranium Integrated Solution Ltd, said that Cranium saw that there was a need to engage the entire world beyond Nigeria.
According to him, there is a need to let people see the reason why they need to go digital when it comes to the healthcare delivery system, adding that it is the new normal anywhere in the world.
Adesida said that the advent of COVID-19 awakened the consciousness to see the need to go digital in the way by which care is given to patients, especially in very remote locations and areas.
He said, “What Cranium has actually done was to bridge the gap between people in remote locations and healthcare.
“That is why it is now a non-negotiable order that every health care stakeholder must go digital because it will help their patients to have direct access to clinicians, and apart from that, it will also help clinicians reduce their burden when it comes to artificial intelligence.
“And then, if they need immediate care in any primary assessment, they can move there physically, or if drugs or any healthcare professional needs to meet them wherever they have digital systems, it will bridge that gap.”
A speaker, who is a member of the National Health Record, Mrs. Amuda Abubakar, said that confidentiality of patient information was very important.
She said that if a patient does not have confidence in a healthcare provider, the patient would not come back again because a patient’s information has been cut right from the source.
She urged hospitals to keep and give information adequately and promptly, stressing that it boosts patients’ confidence.
(NAN)
