Nigeria Healthwatch has said most health related data about Nigeria are incorrect and misleading, making policies on healthcare difficult to implement. The consultant to Nigeria Healthwatch, Dr. Ifeanyi Nsofor who spoke to Daily Trust in Abuja on Monday after a Press Briefing ahead of its second annual flagship event; “The Future of Health” Conference with the theme: “Health meets Tech”.
He said “there are a lot of challenges with data collection in Nigeria because data collected in the country were paper based. “What we do is we design questionnaires and people go around to fill it, there is always errors with that”, the medical expert noted. “What technology does is that it cuts out the errors and makes the process of transferring data fast because it’s done electronically”, he added.
While noting that the role of technology in health care administration can’t be overemphasized, Dr. Nsofor said if Nigeria must compete with other advanced countries, efforts must be made to bring technology into the health sector. “Technology has a way of minimizing errors in data collection and that is why we are bringing this conference up to provide that platform.”
Speaking earlier during the Press Briefing, Abraham Obi of Health Policy Research Group, University of Nigeria Nnsuka applauded the federal government for recently launching the E-health and Telemedicine initiative. He however, called on the government to provide the encouraging environment for startups in health technology through incentives.
Source:Swankpharm