Nigeria’s COVID-19 Vaccination Campaign will be a joke without EHRs

Perhaps you are wondering what EHRs mean, let me start first with that. EHRs is an acronym for Electronic Health records. If you are not familiar with this term, that’s okay and I really don’t blame you because 90% of hospitals here in Nigeria lamentably run on paper! According to the Centres for Medicare and Medicaid Services, an Electronic Health Record (EHR) is an electronic version of a patient’s medical history, that is maintained by the provider over time, and may include all of the key administrative clinical data relevant to that persons care under a particular provider, including demographics, progress notes, problems, medications, past medical history, immunizations, laboratory data and radiology report.’ Across Africa, Helium Health is one of the biggest and largest providers of tech-driven solutions including EHRs.

So if you happen to visit a hospital equipped with EHR, they ask for your name and swoop! Your details are bare on the medical personnel’s screen without flipping through piles of papers. But the Nigerian system is far from this. When you walk into the hospital, they take long hours to search for your file, and then the doctor manually fills in your details with a pen. But at the same time, I have found a few hospitals still in Nigeria that have embraced this new phenomenon like my health care provider- St. Luke’s Hospital in Yaba. Upon arrival at the hospital, they simply ask for my identification number to access everything about my record history as a patient. Now considering efficiency and ease EHRs brings to the table, it’s still a wonder why the majority of healthcare providers refuse to understand how big of an enabler technology is, constantly offering a simplified approach to the comprehensive challenges we face as patients when it comes to accessing healthcare.

Back to our topic, I have seen tons of articles stating how Nigeria is on the path to getting millions of COVID19 vaccines for her citizens. This is necessary and we are grateful for it. In order for us to combat this global enemy, herd immunity is inevitable; that is, a large portion of the population must become immune to this virus which is literally what getting a COVID-19 vaccine does. While you may be feeling sanguine about all I have said so far, let me be straight with you about the real-time challenges.

For starters, there is a global competition over a limited supply of doses meaning that we won’t get as many doses as we should. In fact, nations like Mexico have outcried the ‘inequity’ and ‘inequality’ of vaccination amongst developed and developing nations. Reports say that people need to get two doses of the vaccines and even though Nigeria has said it will secure 16 million doses of vaccines, how are we going to reach over 200 million people in the country? Do you see the picture now?

And then we have another cross to bear- the public hesitation about the vaccines. Come to think of it, many people, especially in rural communities, still believe that COVID-19 is a hoax and along with the team at Communal Health Support Scheme, we have an ambitious goal to reach 10,000 individuals through our COVID-19 Health Response programme to educate individuals about the reality of our dispensation and how to protect ourselves. Many Nigerians do not believe in COVID19, and the tests are not even readily available and accessible, only 1% of the population have gotten tested and I am very curious about how vaccines will be disseminated. Aren’t you?

Nonetheless, I am not pessimistic about the situation because the Polio Vaccination Program (2012–2016) for instance was a huge success, however, what I have seen so far with COVID-19 is nothing short of unpleasant. Even developed countries are still struggling with getting the hang of vaccinating against COVID19, Japan for example had to discard millions of its vaccines because of wrong syringes. The best way to bridge this gap is by getting facilities in healthcare to digitize and have this wholesome body data being reported too. This strategy has worked for Israel, they are one of the countries rolling out an amazing vaccination programme and because they have an EHR showing real-time data of patients, they are able to secure more funding from Pharmaceuticals. They also know who to vaccinate and they communicate effectively with patients using their digitized system.

Finance cracked this nut with the BVN thing, now everyone is reachable and the right data can be harnessed. Healthcare should do the same, this way we get to spread information faster, schedule follow-ups and appointments in record time. We can also track analytics, this way we know those who urgently need care and serve these people better and faster. When such information is even provided to healthcare stakeholders, like funders, investors, they’d be more than willing to support even more because they see the facts and we all know that numbers don’t lie.