Adebola, who spoke in Lagos recently, said such strategies would help in coordinating the use of telemedicine and e-health tools in national health system.
He said government must put in place a policy that would enable the private sector take advantage of e-health services in the country.
"We need a national e-health plan, a national e-health policy strategy and national e-health legislation. We need regulation, standardisation and ethics. This is a very critical role for the government, which requires it to harmonise all existing agencies that are doing similar activities and projects that have led to waste of resources."
According to him, the telemedicine group had in the last five years, advocated the need for a national coordinating mechanism, explaining that telemedicine is all about the use of information communications technology to provide and support health services from a distance.
"Telemedicine is used to provide health information services, to provide actual diagnostic for medical cases over a distance and it saves time; reduces the risk of consulting a quack and save patient from having to queue in the hospital, "he said.
Adebola further said that the May 2005 resolution of the World Health Organisation (WHO) mandating all member states to evolve enabling policy and governance on e-health, still stands.
He said this was because the issue involved two different sectors of Information Technology (IT) and health departments, adding that the IT department could not guide the process alone.
According to him, it takes a multi-sectoral collaboration to understand how the ICT sector is, what are the challenges are and which of these national health priorities we want to use ICT for?
Adebola said that until the e-health enabling policy and e-health governance were in place, it would be difficult for an average Nigerian to benefit from telemedicine.
He said that four African countries: Uganda, Kenya, Ghana and Mali had established telemedicine policy, and suggested that the Federal Ministry of Health, as regulator of health sector in the country, should put in place a telemedicine policy.
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Quelle/Source: AllAfrica, 08.03.2010
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