A presentation of Technology Trends in Healthcare that Community Healthcare Workers (CHEWS) in Nigeria need to Take note of and the significance of these trends in their work. Facilitated by Advantage Health Africa.

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IT in Healthcare
Delivery
Technology Trends in Nigeria that you should prepare to
leverage if you deliver any form of healthcare service...
STEPHEN .O. OYEBODE

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Its 2020 for 2 minutes...
AY wakes up at 6:00 am, ready for work at 7:00 am. Picks his phone and orders an UBER
Taxi.
AY orders Jumia foods during his ride to the office. He picks it up at reception on arrival.
AY remembers his mums birthday and sends a konga gift. She receives it and immediately
knew her son remembered her. She calls to say thanks.
AY pays his electricity, cable Tv, rent, bae’s salon and movie tickets all on his phone. He
even orders fresh groceries like tomatoes from Uganics.
AY feels light headed and sharp bites in his upper abdomen. He can also feel some
heartburn. He is getting scared. NOW, take a moment to envision what AY is most likely to
do under the following circumstances
a. AY is still in 2020.
b. AY is in present day 2018.

3. The End
Death is “The End” of all life forms. Everything that has a beginning MUST end. So, why bother to improve anything
since it’s all going to end anyways?
THE PROCESS is more important than THE END.
QUALITY OF LIFE is “The Process” for all life forms.
This is technology comes in. But how does technology improve Quality Of Life of anyone?
Explore

4. Current Trends in Technology
1
Information dissemination and
Management systems such as: Social Media,
Electronic Medical records, Telemedicine,
Community Health,
3
Electronic Commerce and Logistics
2
Mobile phones and Wearables: Sensors for
measuring heart rate, blood pressure, O2
consumption, pedometers, calorie counters,
water monitors, pill reminders, ovulation
monitors, health calculators etc
4
Data Mining and Analytics

5. Discussion
What is your current Job description?
What do you think could be your future
job description?

6. Information
Dissemination and
Management
Systems

7. Trends
EMRs
Different state governments already in talks with providers
in Nigeria. (My Prediction) We will see significant
improvements in 3 to 4 years.
Importance to you:
Soon, hospitals will only employ healthcare assistants
that have basic computer knowledge. Most EMRs in
Nigeria will run on Desktops. Some may run on tablets.
You need to know your way around computers.

8. Trends
Social Media
Increasingly, people are beginning to sort healthcare advice
on social media. Non-medically related people can easily put
“Dr” title in front of their handles and people believe any
advice they give on health weather it is right or not. Example
is the Ebola Salt and Water crisis.
Importance to You: You now bear a responsibility during your
use of social media to influence the right health choices. You
can even use it to promote health habits and get publicity for
your pharmacy generating more walk-in customers.
Other things you can do is help in obtaining customers Social
media handles ut most importantly Phone Numbers.
Why Phone Numbers? Whatsapp is arguably the biggest
social media platform in the world now. It is free and your
audience is basically waiting for health advice which your
pharmacists specialises in. This can generate high conversion
generating conversation.
You can also create a facebook group for your pharmacy,
coordinating a health community with the assistance of your
superintendent pharmacist.
Knowing about “Responsible Use of Social Media” can help
you know more and suggest great avenues to your
supervisors making you hard to let go and easy to promote.

9. Trends
Telemedicine/Community Health
Patients can easily dial a health professional (doctor, pharmacist,
psychologist, nutritionist etc) on audio calls, video chats and instant
messaging. Some even now use USSD in places like Kano. Access to Health is
getting easier.
Community Health applications that attract a sub-group of health seekers.
E.g. BabyMigo attracts preganat and nursing mothers into its community
health program, gerocare does same for geriatric (elderly) patients.
This trends will be on the increase as it is now being recognised that the
future of health is community.
Importance to You:
More people will work into pharmacies
armed with knowledge gained from their
community health programs. You should
also invest time and resources in gaining
more relevant knowledge to help serve
them better.

10. Mobile Phones
And
Wearables

11. With mobile phones and wearables now everywhere, healthcare providers,
especially in community practice can now teach customers to use their phones as
a health selfcare device, make recommendations on wearable devices that can be
bought and train them on how to use them. Some can even go the extra length of
connecting these devices to a dedicated pharmacy Tablet that will receive results
sent by customers and your pharmacy can make timely interventions.
Importance to You
Learn about all these technologies and suggest them to your supervisor. Show
them how it can be beneficial to their business and customer.
Trends
Mobile Phones and Wearables

12. With purchase habits of people like AY increasingly changing, selling habits need
to also catch up. Companies like My-Medicines.com are taking the initiative to
help pharmacies serve people like AY and still be able to serve their walk in
customers. It’s Win-Win.
Importance to You
You have to be responsive. These kinds of initiatives cannot work if the healthcare
assistants don’t communicate well with such entities. God habits such as always
picking calls from these companies and their logistics partners, returning missed
calls, documenting such sales and reporting it, not sending badly packaged
products and so on need to be developed.
Trends
E-commerce and Logistics

13. Automating as many things as possible should be the aim of any serious retail
business.
Automation helps increase profitability and reduce pilferage and other avenues of
loss. Gives alerts to important notices and gives important analytics of your
business you wouldn’t normally see without it. Serious retailer lead a data driven
business.
Importance to You
Basic understanding around a computer is important for you to be productive in
the sales capacity for a business that uses a good retail software.
Trends
Retail Softwares

14. Quote
If you don’t gain requisite knowledge and
improve yourself, you become irrelevant
in the grand scheme of things.
-Stephen O. 2017

15. Thank you.