Stakeholders in Information Technology and Medical sector advocate using Health Information Technology (HIT) for improved healthcare delivery in the country.
The stakeholders made the call on Thursday at a three-day workshop with the theme: ‘’Equipping Professionals For the Future of Health Information Technology’’ in Abuja.
The event was organized by Cranium Integrated Solutions in collaboration with Digital Health Organisations.
The Head of Department, Health Information Management, Dr Adio Adetona, in his paper presentation said that health information played a critical role in the delivery of health care.
According to Adetona, it focuses on the collection, maintenance and use of quality data as well as supports the information-intensive and information-reliant healthcare system.
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He said that health Information is the data related to a person’s medical history including symptoms, diagnosis, procedures and outcomes.
According to him, improving patient care has become a priority for all healthcare providers with the overall objective of achieving a high degree of patient satisfaction.
“Health records and health information are the tools for achieving improved patient care.
“Achieving improved patient care is important because there is greater awareness among the public, keener competition, increasing demand for better care, and more health care regulation.
“The other reason for improved patients’ satisfaction is the rise in medical malpractice litigation and concerns about poor outcome,’’ he said.
Adetona said that advanced health records and information management could be achieved with the application of health information technology.
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He said that equipping healthcare professionals for the future required knowledge of information technology.
According to him, health records and information management driven by Health Information Technology provide resources to make decisions.
The Co-founder, Cranium Integrated Solutions, Dr Adekunle Adesida, said in his paper presentation that the main goal of a relational database was to reduce data duplication and make them readily and easily accessible as at when needed.
Adesida’s paper presentation was, “Health Database, Design and Development’’.
He said that database development included the design of the table structures, the creation of the indexes and the development of the procedures and triggers.
Adesida identified some challenges in transferring data and information.
“Though much of the data needed for clinical care, patient safety, and quality improvement resides on computers, there is problem of transferring these data easily.
“This is due to haphazard adoption of data standards for organising, representing, and encoding clinical information so that the data could be understood and accepted by the receiving systems,” he said.
He said that the lack of standards had also prevented the reuse of clinical data to meet the broad range of patient safety and quality reporting requirements.
He noted that the Federal Government recognized the problem and was moving forward with the integration of safety-related systems.
Adesida, however, advocated that healthcare systems adopt digital health applications that have worldwide acceptable standard.
He said it should ensure that patient flow is seamless and effective, adoption of indigenous applications that could be fully modified and grant full rights to the database.
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‘’As well as engage the service of digital health experts in the selection of apps and development of the database,” he said.
Again, the Chartered Information Technology Practitioner, Mr Tokunbo Smith, in his presentation, “Strategic Management in Healthcare”, said that is important because it helps to be more competitive.
Smith said it helped to move past short-term thinking and strategies for the future of the organisation.
“Strategic management helps to establish and monitor progress against long-term plans.
“The benefits of strategic management is that aside from financial gains it can also boost workplace motivation.
“Setting effective goals for employees and involving them in organisational objectives can improve overall performance,” he said.
NAN
