Doris Obinna
The Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu has said that the state government would deploy technology to aid faster and smarter healthcare services in all healthcare facilities, as a means of achieving its health and environment mandate.
Sanwo-Olu, who disclosed this while declaring open a three-day Smart Health Technical Symposium on e-health, themed “Lagos State Smart Health Information Platform (SHIP),” stressed that the present administration was prepared to leverage on technology to improve health care delivery in the state.
The governor, represented by his deputy, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat, stated that the essence of the e-health symposium organised by the Laogs State Ministry of Health was to enhance the already existing e-health platform to ensure Lagos remained in tune with modern technology.
He explained further that the development of e-health would make it possible to have a single source of truth with a solid database to make planning effective.
“It is important for us to establish and strengthen our health information platform, as this will positively impact on our various healthcare systems, health financing through our universal health coverage, biosecurity, biosafety, which will also lead to employment opportunities while opening doors for international collaboration,” the governor said.
Highlighting the importance of accurate data in medicine and healthcare delivery, Sanwo-Olu described data as the currency of the future, stating further that data generated under the state’s one-health strategy would enable the administration to better meet the needs of residents and implement lasting policies for the benefit of future generations
Sanwo-Olu noted that the e-health platform was similar to the technology recently launched by the state government. He added that the technology master plan would allow developers to develop useful systems in the state, as the present administration was currently working on a 3,000km of fiber optic network, which would allow accessible network to all hospitals and public agencies.
On his part, the Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, pointed out that the technical conference on e-health was geared towards strengthening the Smart Health Information Platform (SHIP) of the state, which would further strengthen the One Healthcare Record policy.
Abayomi listed the advantages of SHIP to include precision medicine, accelerated human resource development, quality assurance, standardize exchange of information and optimize operating procedures adding that SHIP is in furtherance of the efforts to ensure efficient and effective healthcare delivery in Lagos State.
Abayomi explained that the Lagos State smart health strategy will improve efficiency, reduce wastage of scarce resources, improve income generation, drive the bioeconomy, accelerate human resource development, create global virtual health hub and prepare the State to enter the digital age of precision medicine.
He said, “we are trying to up the game, it is a matter of making what we have do more and cover more people. So a good and working digital health platform makes the health system run faster, make it more efficient and remove the delay that may arise from patient referral and transfer between health facilities”
The Commissioner noted that one Lagos one-health digital strategy will owned by Lagos and partners will help deliver a road map, global bench mark standards, a business model, a technical working group, time lines to first prototype and income generating strategies.
Participants at the conference are expected to examine the modalities of bringing more hospitals from the primary to secondary and tertiary healthcare facilities on board the interactive Health Management Information system software, simply referred to as e-health project which had been introduced in 12 state owned hospitals some years ago.