FG to digitalise healthcare system, boost research funding

Alausa said this on Saturday at a press briefing on the ministry’s agenda for the health sector.

He also said the government will increase funding for research and digitalising the health system will help to facilitate accurate data to improve the sector in line with the ‘Renewed Hope Agenda’ of President Bola Tinubu.

He said, “We need to begin to make sure that the data we collect are accurate, and they are validated, they can be trusted, internationally and locally. And those data will be used to deliver care to our people. And then once you have validated data that you can trust, you can begin to see the indices where you’re getting better, where you’re doing well, and where you’re not doing well. Then you can recheck your interventions to improve those outcomes.

“As part of our digitalisation of the healthcare system, we’re going to roll out a national electronic medical record where our primary care centres, politicians, and hospitals will come on the same platform. Then as we move into the future, we will encourage each state government to use the same platform.”

Alausa said the unified electromedical platform will aid easy access to data, medical history, continuity of care and reduce cost of care.

He said the sector will be more accountable and well-regulated, and the government will fund research in the country.

“We have a lot of research institutions. Everybody is working independently. We will rejig our research institutions, make them work collaboratively and get them to do what they are meant to do. We have a lot of professors in academia who are struggling, they are just by themselves, no resources to support their research projects.

“As a professor, less than 50 per cent of your work should just be teaching students in classrooms; it’s a lifelong dedication to research. We will unleash our clinical research, translational research, and basic research because we will put more money into research.

“Because as we do more research, we will begin to be self-dependent on our pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and even on the way we put policy and standard procedure together because these are now homegrown.

“We’ve done trials on Nigerians, and we know how the drug will work better, and which one will not work better. So we will be really moving our research system into a more robust, focused, and directional platform.”