|
Nigerians desirous of high quality medical consultation, especially with renown experts resident abroad now have the opportunity to do so with the as a new telemedicine centre for such interactions has opened in Lagos.
The centre, according to the progenitors would increase access to high quality healthcare services at affordable among Nigerians
The designated Glo-Telemedicine centre located on Victoria Island, Lagos is a brainchild of collaborations between Global Resources & Projects, a Nigerian body dedicated to capacity building in healthcare and some international healthcare providers across India, United States, Egypt and other countries.
According to the experts behind it, the unveiling of the centre would, ultimately provide a bridge between Nigerians who are desirous of quality healthcare and experts who may be stationed in far-flung locations locally and abroad.
Chief Executive Officer of Global Resources, Dr. Wale Alabi, who spoke on the initiative, said it is aimed at cutting the unnecessary pains and cost Nigerians bear in the course of travels abroad in search of quality medical attention.
Alabi disclosed that a huge number of Nigerians travel abroad using hard earned resources to seek medical attention at a time there are too much cope with in the country.
"The Glo-Telemedicine Centre would bridge the gap between the poor and good health services by creating a simless communication between them and those with the expertise and facilities to help them," Alabi said.
He added that the initiative rides on the availability of the broadband access fibre optics access provided by Nigerian Telecommunication firm, Globacom, to reduce the traffic of Nigerians travelling abroad for medical attention.
"We have found from experience in dealing with international healthcare providers that most Nigerians who travel abroad for medical attentions either do not need to go all the way or are misguided. If only they are opportune to interact with the appropriate experts before going there, they would be saved so much stress," Alabi said.
A major finding, as disclosed by Alabi is that an estimated 60 per cent of those who travel to India, South Africa, Egypt and other global health destinations could actually access similar quality of healthcare services here in Nigeria.
"It is also disheartening to note that most people who travel abroad for medical attention do so based on wrong diagnosis," he added.
Telemedicine and other health experts from one of India's largest hospitals, Narayana, are in the country to show support for the project, which the managers said would engage in lots of philanthropy for truly indigent Nigerians.
Alabi who threw more light on Telemedicine said it is not a medical specialty, but an important tool that is being increasingly used to deliver better healthcare throughout the world.
It utilises the rapid advances in Information and communication Technology, which now makes it possible to transmit text, sound, video, image and other information from one location to another.
"Time and cost involved in patient's transportation can be significantly reduced," according to Alabi.
He said the centre would offer super speciality-consultation services to Nigerians at very low cost. It will also offer Continuing Medical Education (CME) opportunities for Doctors and other medical experts on growing trends in the profession.
"Nigeria needs to Leverage on this Technology that is already transforming other developing countries such as Kenya ,Ghana etc.," Alabi said.
A few years ago, the Federal government of Nigeria, through the ministries of science and technology and Health, commissioned a Telemedicine project that was successfully piloted using satellite-based technologies.
That project, has, however, not grown beyond its birth size apparently because of reasons bordering on cost and applicability, most of which the Glo-Telemedicine centre has addressed.
|