The federal government is stepping up efforts to improve health data management by strengthening the digital skills of health information professionals and ensuring that qualified officers are responsible for managing records in health care facilities.
The Registrar and Chief Executive Officer of the Records Officers Registration Council of Nigeria, Alhaji Babagana Mustapha, said this was necessary to prepare health information management graduates for the increasing use of digital technology in Nigeria’s health care system.
Mustapha spoke in Abuja at a two-day retreat and training on the District Health Information Software 2 (DHIS2) for tutors across health information management training institutions.
He said the training was designed to improve tutors’ practical knowledge of digital health systems and ensure that students acquired the skills required for effective health data collection, analysis, reporting and utilisation.
The registrar urged heads of departments and coordinators to ensure that the knowledge gained during the exercise was shared with other tutors and integrated into teaching activities.
He also called for improved digital learning facilities, continuous professional development and adherence to data confidentiality, information security and professional ethics.
Representing the Director of Planning, Research and Statistics at the Federal Ministry of Health, Dr Anthony Adoge said the government would continue to support efforts to position licensed Health Information Management (HIM) officers at the centre of health care data management.
Adoge urged the council to recommend that all public and private health facilities employ licensed health records officers to manage their records departments, regardless of whether they had adopted digital systems.
He also pledged that only licensed HIM officers would be engaged as enumerators during the mini Demographic and Health Survey scheduled for 2027.
According to him, the ministry had deployed laptops to 6,000 primary health care centres on the condition that states provide evidence that licensed HIM officers were managing health data in the facilities.
He said more than 5,000 primary health care centres had been digitalised within six months, while about 11,000 of Nigeria’s 37,000 health facilities were using electronic medical record systems.
Adoge said the government wanted health information professionals to develop competencies that could meet international standards and enable them to interpret data for effective health care planning and decision-making.
He warned professionals against surrendering their responsibilities to technology vendors, stressing that qualified health information officers must remain central to the management and interpretation of patients’ data.
Also speaking, Dr Chizora Opara of the Federal Ministry of Water Resources and Sanitation, said reliable data was critical to achieving Nigeria’s target of ending open defecation by 2030.
Opara said the National Clean Nigeria: Use the Toilet Campaign, launched in 2019, had recorded 184 local government areas as open-defecation-free.