Sherifah Oyediran
The Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole has identified the importance of telemedicine solutions in the modern healthcare service delivery.
Adewole who made the remarks on Thursday at 10th Nigeria Conference on Telemedicine and Electronic Health (NICTeHealth 2016) themed, “Building eHealth Workforce Capacity to Build Capacity for eHealth in Nigeria” said, factors which impeded adoption of the plan in Nigeria, included low awareness and capability of health workers.
The represented by Director of Information Communication Technology (ICT), Sotunbi Olayemi, expressed conviction that adoption of the eHealth plan by qualified personnel in the sector, would ensure an upgrade in accessibility to the system through ICT.
This he said would also facilitate ease in training workers in the industry.
The Health Minister said organisation of the eHealth capacity building programme was a concerted effort of the industry and other sectors which included ministry of communication and United Nations.
“It is a fact that if appropriately deployed and operated by sufficiently trained professionals, ICT in health will improve the healthcare system by ensuring improved access to healthcare system through effective use of telemedicine and use of ICT for health workers continuous training and support’ he said.
He also said that major role of government in development and management of telemedicine and eHealth in Nigeria was to provide an enabling environment for the services, through appropriate legislation, policy and strategy.
“It is in this regard that the FMoH in collaboration with the Ministry of Communication and other relevant stakeholders, with support from the United Nation Foundation, developed a National Health ICT Strategic Framework in March, 2-13.”
The President, Society for Telemedicine and eHealth, Dr Olajide Adebola, said their work over years, had been advocacy and provision of eHealth services to Nigerians, adding that the target was to facilitate harmony among concerned parties in order to achieve a universal coverage of the sector.
“Health system requires a well-trained and highly skilled workforce and there is need to provide training in health information management, health informatics, health information communication technology to strengthen national health system capability to developing countries to control diseases or poverty.” Adebola said.
