As the Nigerian population increases, more people are diagnosed with terminal diseases that often need daily medication, and for people with such illnesses forgetting to take their drugs at the appointed time can pose a serious problem to their health that might be life-threatening, This can be solved by getting a mobile application or device that helps check the prescription time and alerts you so that you can take the drugs and this application is called mobile health or mhealth.
According to WHO, mhealth is using mobile devices and wireless digital technologies to support medicine and public health. Breaking it into Six initiatives:
1. Communication between individuals and health services, e.g., Emergency toll-free number
2. Communication between health services and Individuals, e.g., public service announcements that remind individuals to get tested for Covid
3. Consultation between health care workers
4. Communication between healthcare agencies to respond to public emergencies, e.g., this initiative was used during the Ebola outbreak in 2014
5. Health Monitoring and Surveillance, e.g., Using social media to check the spread of borne diseases
6. Access to Patient Information for Professional healthcare workers, e.g., E-record keeping
All these initiatives are currently in use in Nigeria, and the most efficient will be the development of mHealth, which helps carry out any of these initiatives. Examples are;
1. Doctall: This is a complete digital healthcare app that allows individuals to book appointments with various specialists online and hold these consultations online. You can also book appointments for tests and screening.
2. My Paddi: This is a mHealth app that allows users to anonymously chat with other users about their sex life, mental health, and general health, as well as receive consultation sessions with doctors and therapists.
3. Tonome: this app helps to control heart rate and blood pressure. With this app, you can also create a graph for heart rate changes and also a detailed report that can be analyzed by a cardiologist when you have an appointment to see a patient’s heart rate progress.
This and more mhealth apps are breaking the digital ground in Nigeria, making it easier for individuals to access quality health services. Although they might need to upgrade, the journey to switching Nigerian healthcare services has begun, and it is going to move to greater heights in the coming years.
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Photo by Hush Naidoo Jade
