Qualcomm Wireless Reach in Nigeria is providing ChiniPAK Tablets for State Primary Health Care Agencies in Ondo State, a move which stakeholders in the industries described as leveraging technology to transform the health sector in Nigeria.
The ChiniPak Tablet is the latest technology that would be used by frontline healthcare officers to collect data of patients and send them directly to a configured local networks, before the data is transmitted to the server in the cloud, where medical experts from different parts of the world could have access to the data and offer on-the-spot medical advice to the patient.
However, the ChiniPAK Tablets create applications that can document data of patients and make the data accessible to medical experts in developed countries of the world, although the latest technology is currently not accessible by the rural communities.
Deborah Theobald, Team Member, Primary Grantee, Qualcomm Wireless Reach in Nigeria, in a panel discussion on the topic titled “Understanding the Value-chain of Connectivity for Improving Healthier Lives and Societies in Nigeria”; made it clear that accessing data at the needed time could go a long way to saving lots of issues. “The technology is picturecentric, captures the data of any patient. We can rely on the technology for proper documentation and easy access of data when needed, Deborah said. It’s documentation process is faster and more efficient than paper”.
Meanwhile, the ChiniPAK Tablet has installed applications such as videos and educational materials related to health. Once we have infrastructure in place going forward, we will build more applications on the ChiniPAK and that becomes formidable for us to grow.” She added.
One of the panellists, Adeleke Balogun, Assistant Director, ICT, Federal Ministry of Health, said the government is poised to utilising and leveraging the power of ICT in the health sector, stating that building capacities as well is another key area to be looked into.
“Having the right infrastructure to drive technology is great but having the people that would control and manage the infrastructure is another issue. We have identified that area and it becomes very crucial to us.
Commenting on the efforts of the government regarding ehealth government policy and initiative he said the Federal Ministry of Health is trying to coordinate all stakeholders at state level, including private sector to key into the initiative, with a view to creating an eHealth policy that will drive mHealth in the country.
“The policy will soon be released, because there is eHealth structure on ground and we have the Ministers of Health and Communications as Chairman and co-Chairman of a steering committee, working for the release of the policy. Other members include CEOs of health agencies and Information and Communications Technology (ICT) agencies, he added.