Computer Science Department, Adeyemi College of Education, Ondo Capacity Building in Electronic Health in Nigeria Healthcare Delivery System by IROJU Olaronke G. (Ph.D) Computer Science Department, Adeyemi College of Education, Ondo

PRESENTATION OUTLINE Introduction Capacity and Capacity Building Concept of Electronic Healthcare Benefits of Electronic Healthcare The Nigeria Healthcare System Importance of Capacity Building in E-Health in Nigeria Healthcare System

PRESENTATION OUTLINE (Cont’d) Challenges of E-Health Capacity Building in Nigeria Healthcare System Suggested Ways of Building Capacity in E-Health in Nigeria Healthcare System Conclusion References

INTRODUCTION Health is more than the absence of illnesses, diseases and pain. It involves the total physical, mental and social well-being of a human being. It is a condition for the development of an individual and the society (United Nations, 2009).

INTRODUCTION (Cont’d) Thus, a nation’s healthcare system is concerned with its people’s health. The primary purpose of a healthcare system is to promote, restore, and maintain health. Hence, the primary goal of a healthcare system is to reduce medical errors and costs, increase patients’ safety as well as increase the quality of patients care.

INTRODUCTION (Cont’d) These goals are yet to be achieved in the Nigeria healthcare system (Iroju et al., 2013). However, it is widely believed that the broad adoption of electronic healthcare systems will improve healthcare by providing better coordination of care, easy exchange of information and greater continuity of health services and reduction of medical errors and costs.

INTRODUCTION (Cont’d) The benefits of electronic healthcare are yet to be fully realized in the Nigeria healthcare system (Foster, 2012). This is because of the inadequate ICT infrastructure, erratic power supply, shortage of skilled healthcare professionals, brain drain, corruption as well as inadequate financial aid from the government as well as religious and non-governmental organizations.

INTRODUCTION (Cont’d) Hence, the Nigeria healthcare system is saddled with the outbreak of infectious diseases, high cost, high error rates as well as low quality of healthcare delivery. Consequently, there is an urgent need to build capacity in electronic health so as to improve the quality of healthcare delivery in the Nigeria healthcare system, as the wealth of a nation is highly dependent on the health of its people.

CAPACITY Capacity is defined as the ability of individuals, organizations or systems to perform appropriate functions efficiently, effectively and sustainably.

CAPACITY BUILDING Defined by the UNDP (1997) as the creation of an enabling environment with appropriate policy and legal frameworks, institutional development, community participation, human resources development and strengthening of managerial systems.

CAPACITY BUILDING (Cont’d) Defined by UNESCO (2006) as the process by which individuals, organizations and institutions increase their abilities to perform core functions, solve problems, define and achieve objectives as well as understand and deal with their development needs in a broad context and in a sustainable manner (UNESCO, 2006). Concerned with human resource development, organizational development and institutional and legal framework development

ELECTRONIC HEALTHCARE E-Health is the application of ICT to healthcare to improve access, efficiency, effectiveness and quality of clinical and business processes utilized by healthcare organizations, practitioners, patients and consumers to improve the health status of patients.

FORMS OF E-HEALTH Mobile Health Telemedicine Health Information Systems Patient-Carried Record Electronic Health System

BENEFITS OF E-HEALTH Storage and Retrieval Accessibility Reduction of Medical Errors It increases patients’ participation in their care Reduction of Medical Costs

The Nigeria Healthcare System The Nigeria healthcare system is maintained by the three tiers of government (Federal, State and Local government), the private sector, religious and non-governmental organizations, as well as local communities.

The Nigeria Healthcare System (Cont’d) Fig 1: A Chart Depicting the Structure of the Nigeria Healthcare System (Adapted from: Iroju et al., 2013)

The Nigeria Healthcare System (Cont’d) Despite the exponential growth of her citizens, Nigeria has 17, 068 health facilities (Pantuvo et al., 2011). 151 (<1%) are owned by the Federal Government 1,385 (8.1%) by the State Governments, 7,580 (44.4%) by LGAs 579 (3.4%) by communities and religious organizations 7,373 (43.2%) are privately owned.

The Nigeria Healthcare System (Cont’d) Hence, the World Health Report (2000) ranked Nigeria 187 out of 191 countries for health service performance and there has been no significant improvement since then (Iroju et al., 2013).

The Nigeria Healthcare System (Cont’d Fig 1: Photos from a Typical Nigeria healthcare Facility (Source: Otolorin, 2007)

Importance of Capacity Building in E-Health in Nigeria Healthcare System Building capacity in e-health will help in developing the skills and competence of healthcare providers. Capacity building in e-health will help to reduce or totally eliminate the outbreak of epidemic diseases (such as the recent outbreak of the Ebola Virus Disease) by providing timely and up-to-date health information to Nigerian citizens.

Importance of Capacity Building in E-Health in Nigeria Healthcare System (Cont’d) It will also facilitate better response to patients in the case of emergencies. Building capacity in e-health will facilitate the security and confidentiality of patients’ information. Capacity building in e-health will enable patients and diverse healthcare provides to have access to timely and accurate patients’ information in a timely manner regardless of their geographical locations.

Challenges of E-Health Capacity Building in Nigeria Healthcare System Erratic Power Supply Inadequate Funding Brain drain Inadequate Healthcare Professionals

Suggested Ways of Building Capacity in E-Health in Nigeria Healthcare System Provision of an enabling environment for the successful implementation, maintenance and sustenance of ICT facilities in Nigeria healthcare system. Healthcare professionals should be appropriately and adequately trained on the implementation and maintenance of e-health applications

Suggested Ways of Building Capacity in E-Health in Nigeria Healthcare System Government at all levels should promote the use of e-health facilities for continuous health education. E-Health support must be incorporated in the national budget. The Federal Government of Nigeria should provide uninterrupted power supply for the implementation of e-health facilities.

CONCLUSION The Nigeria healthcare system is characterized by high cost, outbreak of infectious diseases, low quality of care and inadequate timely information for combating health threats. However, capacity building in e-health will help in developing the skills and competence of healthcare providers as well as reducing the outbreak of epidemic diseases. It is therefore against this backdrop that this paper appraises the significance of building capacity in e-health in Nigeria healthcare system.

REFERENCES Foster,D. (2012). Review of Developing Country Health Information Systems. Jembi Health Systems. I Iroju, O., Gambo, I., Ikono, R. and Olaleke J. (2013). Interoperability in Nigeria Healthcare: The Ways Forward. International Journal of Information Engineering and Electronic Business, Hong Kong, China, 5(4), 16-23. Pantuvo J. S., Naguib R.N.G., Wickramasinghe, N. (2011). Towards Implementing a Nationwide Electronic Health Record System in Nigeria. International Journal of Healthcare Delivery Reform Initiatives, 3(1), 39-55. United Nations Development Programme (1997). Capacity Development. Technical Advisory Paper 2, New York. United Nations (2009). Mainstreaming of Health Issues and Human Capacity-Building in Public Administration. Committee of Experts on Public Administration Eighth session, New York. UNESCO (2006).Capacity Building. International Instititute for Educational Planning, Paris.  

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