The Systematic Overview of Remote Patient Monitoring in Nigeria (West Africa)

The authors discuss the application of RPM to manage diseases, relevant regulatory issues, and challenges in connectivity to remote and rural areas.

Remotely applied healthcare is defined as a strategic approach to monitor and direct treatment of dis-eases afflicting patients outside the hospital. This is accomplished through the use of information and technology applications. To that end, remote patient monitoring (also known as remote physiologic monitoring) applies dig-ital technologies to observe and capture medical and other patient health data.

This information is then transmitted electronically to healthcare providers for assessment and recommendations. Today in Nigeria, advances in telemedicine from a patient’s home are facilitating the growth of remote patient/physiologic monitoring (RPM) in the management of non-life-threatening diseases. RPM is targeted to a variety of patient subgroups that require ongoing monitoring. These include, but are not limited to, those with chronic diseases, mobility challenges, post-surgical patients, newborns, and the elderly. Documented benefits of telemedicine include improved patient wait times leading to more cost-effective medical care. Increased Internet broadband penetration is a significant factor influencing the future success of telemedicine in Nigeria and RPM in Africa.

As early as 2010, some organizations and educational institutions, including the University of Lagos (UNILAG), began developing telemedicine infrastructures. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), a country’s doctor-to-patient ratio should be 1:600. In Nigeria, the current doctor-to-patient ratio is approximately four times greater — 1:2,500.3 This doctor-to-patient ratio has led to the expansion of telemedicine platforms in Nigeria and Africa.

Want to read more? Head here: https://doi.org/10.30953/tmt.v7.359

Authors

• Umarfarouq Idris | Cromford Health, North Carolina, USA
• Latifah Abdulkarim | University of Ilorin
• Bryan Arkwright | Cromford Health, Charlotte, North Carolina, USA; Wake Forest University School of Law, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA; Ohio University, Athens, Ohio, USA; Partners in Digital Health, New York, New York, USA.