NIGERIA has the potential to build a stronger and more efficient health system by harnessing Artificial Intelligence (AI), but this will require sustained investment in people, technology, governance and digital infrastructure, a public health information expert has said.
Mr. Bright Ibezim, Unit Head, Health Informatics, Institute of Human Virology Nigeria (IHVN), told National Record that AI could transform healthcare delivery by improving disease detection, supporting clinical decision-making, automating routine documentation and making digital health systems more responsive to patients’ needs.
“We have what it takes to build a strong health system using Artificial Intelligence. What we need are the right investments, people, technology, governance and infrastructure. I believe it is very much possible, and we can achieve it here in Nigeria,” he said.
Ibezim said one area where AI could have significant impact was tuberculosis (TB) screening, particularly through the analysis of chest X-rays to identify people at higher risk of the disease.
“Rather than screening and testing over 2,000 people to identify 20 cases, you can use AI to improve the screening process,” he said.
According to him, AI-assisted screening could enable health workers to focus confirmatory testing on people identified as being at higher risk, reducing the need to test large numbers of people unnecessarily. “Instead of collecting samples from 1,000 people, you can focus on collecting samples from those 20,” he said, adding that AI could be utilised as a tool for TB case finding.
He said AI could equally ease the administrative burden on doctors by extracting relevant clinical information from recorded consultations and automatically populating electronic medical records (EMRs). “This means that the doctor does not need to spend as much time entering information into the EMR and can instead focus on having a quality discussion with the patient,” he said.
Ibezim also identified mobile and cloud technologies as important tools for extending digital health services to underserved and remote communities, particularly where internet connectivity is unreliable. He explained that healthcare workers collecting vaccination or HIV-testing information in areas without internet access could use mobile applications to capture records offline and synchronise them with a central server or cloud platform when connectivity is restored.
The expert further highlighted human genomics as an emerging area that could deepen the use of digital health by combining genomic information with electronic medical records to identify potential health risks.
He said the ultimate goal should be to move beyond basic health data collection towards what he described as “health intelligence”. “The whole aim of deploying these technologies is to achieve what we call health intelligence. It is like having a consultant built into your EMR, guiding you on the appropriate medication and treatment plan for a patient,” he said.
Ibezim said combining health intelligence with patients’ medical histories could contribute to a more efficient and accessible health system while helping to reduce the cost of running hospitals and delivering healthcare.
