By Lexi Elo
Ridden by sub-optimal health outcomes, poor quality of care and lack of protection from financial risk which confronts Nigeria’s health market, stakeholders say deployment of appropriate health applications and innovations will accelerate Nigeria’s progress towards attaining health-related MDGs.[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”10″]
Omobola Johnson, Minister for Communication Technology, reveals that despite Nigeria’s modest gains in health objectives, she is not on-track to meet its health related MDGs due to inadequate primary health care facilities to meet the population demand, shortage of critical human resources, inadequate power and water supply, commodity stock-outs, and inadequate equipment .
With a number of African countries such as Ethiopia, Malawi, deploying appropriate health applications to accelerate progress in her healthcare system, mobile phones remains an invaluable tool for improving the Nigerian health market through relevant applications and innovations
Giving a clear picture of health innovation, Johnson explains that in Ethiopia, poor access to primary health care (PHC) services in over 85 percent of rural communities contributed to high maternal and infant mortality rates. With government’s focus on expanding healthcare delivery to rural areas, Johnson states that this is complemented by smartphone health apps that allow for the collection in local languages
“The impact has been an increase in PHC services from 76.9 percent in 2005 to 90 percent in 2010. Infant mortality rates also reduced from 17 percent in 2000 to 6.8 percent in 2012. One of the things undertaken to combat poor quality of data and delays on key child health indicators in Malawi was the implementation of an SMS platform to input and provide feedback on data. This reduced the delay in data transmission, improved surveillance, early identification and treatment of malnourished infants by public health workers.
“The Ondo State Abiye Programme – an initiative that links up pregnant mothers and infants up to age 5 with health centres or clinics near is regarded as a success as at December 2012, after 34 months of operation; 59,557 registered patients including 32,439 under 5 years and 27,118 pregnant women, 15,730 safe deliveries, including 2,395 caesarean sections and 7,972 paediatric admissions. These performance figures are noteworthy for a State that was ranked by the World Bank in 2008 as having the highest maternal deaths in South West Nigeria.
“Mobile phone is a formidable tool for social, economic development and inclusion. They are used in ways that empower patients, health workers, and health systems/administrators. They deliver messages to pregnant women and mothers, register newborns, disburse conditional cash transfers, deliver eLearning initiatives that complement the training of frontline health workers as well as improve logistics and supply chains” Johnson explains.
Dr. Muntaqa Umar-Sadiq, executive director/chief executive officer, Private Sector Health Alliance of Nigeria, , bemoans the low application of innovation and technology in healthcare delivery which is believed to be the biggest missed opportunity in transforming the nation’s healthcare delivery.
The CEO states that in order to leapfrog existing constraints and spur health innovations through a sustainable convergence platform, the Private Sector Health Alliance created the Nigerian Health Innovation Marketplace (NHIM) to identify promising innovations, provide market linkages and incubation support to enable health innovation to achieve scale, make targeted investments in selected innovations that make it through the incubator and build a sustainable convergence platform around health innovation.
While thousands of Nigerian children die annually from vaccine-preventable diseases like polio, measles, etc, Dr. Umar-Sadiq reveals that PHN has secured working partnerships with the Ministry of Communication Technology, National Primary Healthcare Development Agency, PHN Telecoms, members, States, LGAs, GSMA and mobile-‐health Alliance to design and pilot an innovative intervention to leverage phone masts’ excess power capacity to strengthen neighbouring primary healthcare centers (PHCs’ last mile vaccine cold chain infrastructure.
According to Dr. Umar-Sadiq “The additional power capacity from more proximal mobile phone masts can be used to power the refrigeration of viable vaccines at selected mast shelters. The potential impact is to save thousands of lives by strengthening the efficiency of vaccine storage and delivery at the last mile and increase in the number of routine immunization days. This will improve availability and effectiveness of vaccine stock and reduce wastage and stock-out of vaccines at the last mile.”
For his part, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, Founding Board, PHN, hints that addressing healthcare challenges in Nigeria in a bid to attain health-related MDGs requires commitment and synergy among private sector players in the country.
“A healthier society is key in delivering MDG target. We cannot sit in our air-conditioned cars and watch at least one million lives lost from preventable diseases. We all should talk less and drive initiatives aimed at reducing maternal and child morbidity and mortality. Government has to be ready and willing to ensure healthcare delivery is attained. The NHIM steering committee set up will play a number of roles in supporting the success of the NHIM; oversight, visibility, accountability and partnerships. Driving activities of health innovation marketplace is not regotiable. We need to walk the talk and talk less,” Dangote explains.
Members of the NHIM steering committee include NPHCDA, GSK, Hygeia Group, Helois investment Partners, CHMI, IPIHD, Solina Health, Anadach, centre for Affordable Heacthcare Technology, University of Oxford, Saving One Million Lives initiatives, Wennovation.
It will be recalled that Bill Gates and business leaders in the country recently launched the Alliance as a country owned private sector led multi-sectoral coalition focused on mobilizing the private sector’s collective capabilities, assets and resources to accelerate improvement in health outcomes. Among its contribution is Saving One Million Lives movement, a platform to advance progress in meeting health-related MDG by focusing on innovation, partnerships, advocacy and impact investments.