Health Information Technology in Nigeria: Stakeholders’ Perspectives of Nationwide Implementations and Meaningful Use of the Emerging Technology in the Most Populous Black Nation

Abstract

Background: Nigeria is witnessing continuing advocacy and increase in number of individuals yearning for computerization of health information and healthcare processes. On the other hand, the Government of this most populous black nation is evolving plans and strategies for the adoption and implementation of health information technology (HIT). However, little is known about opinions of the diverse healthcare providers who would act the script of government in ensuring meaningful use of HIT in the country. Objective: This nationwide, cross-sectional study attempted to determine stakeholders’ perspectives of the emerging HIT in Nigeria. Result: HIT stakeholders who gave consent (n=233) at the two conferences participated in the study, 76% of whom were male professionals, mostly (117, 50.2%) from tertiary healthcare institutions. It worthy of note that three of the participants came from United States of America to attend the 1st National Conference on Health Information Technology in Nigeria. Of all participants, the majority (226, 99.1%) opined that HIT will improve communication among healthcare providers. A similar portion (223, 98.2%) were of the opinion that HIT will facilitate prompt retrieval of patient’s health records on point-of-care (POC). Nearly two-third (139, 62.6%) were optimistic of possible realization of nationwide implementations of HIT in the country by the year 2020. The results also indicate that gender, professional inclination, and place of work were important predictors of positive opinion of HIT. The three factors were associated with stakeholders’ opinion that the evolving HIT is capable of improving medical care quality (p=0.059; 0.000; 0.014) of the Nigerian populace. Most stakeholders (61%) recommended that the paper-based health records should be archived post implementation of HIT. Conclusion: The Nigerian healthcare system is manned by providers and stakeholders who are quite abreast of the benefits of health information technology and are willing to embrace the technology in their workflow. This is quite reassuring and tends to prompt the healthcare decision makers to proactively formulate policies and introduce interventions to encourage nationwide acceptance of the emerging technology. Nonetheless, there is more to be done on appropriate clinical documentation in order to set a friendly pedestal for effective takeoff, successful implementations and meaningful use. Appropriate funding and financial incentives for quality improvement is recommended. In addition, the National Conference on HIT should be convened annually and a technical committee be set up to appraise future implementations.