“Timely and accurate health information forms the essential foundation for making policy on planning, implementing and evaluating all health programs” – World Health Organization

Each year worldwide, 500,000 women die due to complications from childbirth. Of these, 10% come from Nigeria, where, for every woman who dies in childbirth, another 30 suffer debilitating complications and chronic ill health. The infant mortality rate mirrors the maternal statistics, with 71 neonatal deaths per 1000 live births. In 2000, NGOs and private foundations accounted for almost 90% of Nigeria’s health care spending, underscoring the collapse of the state health system. While local and international NGOs provide many low-cost maternal and child health clinics, these clinics are burdened by completely ineffective paper-based “health information management systems”.  Because of this, a typical data point is recorded 3-4 times and manually summarized monthly or quarterly, a process that can take weeks to complete. Unfortunately, if the clinic is not affiliated with a  research hospital or an external funder, clinical data may not exist at all. Also, it is impossible for healthcare workers to use data from previous visits to treat returning patients.  The lack of medical records is a major contributor to Nigeria’s failing healthcare system.

Nigeria is currently undergoing a public health crisis with regards to maternal and child health.  In order to address this crisis, Nigerian clinics, hospitals and policy makers need access to timely and accurate health information that can both influence policy as well as support patient care.  To this effect it will be necessary to address the lack of an eHealth “ecosystem” in Nigeria. An electronic medical records system (EMRs) is a feasible and low cost way to provide the accurate information needed to transform maternal survivability rates.  eHealth Nigeria is working towards these ends by:

1. Creating “Instant EMR”, a ready-to-go EMR system specific for Nigerian healthcare,
2. Using the data collected by the EMRs to create a Nigerian Health Information Exchange system which will help NGOs and government leaders to make educated policies, and
3. Working with local Universities to update the Higher National Diploma curriculum on Health Information Management Systems to include in-depth knowledge and hands-on experience with OpenMRS and other eHealth systems in order to create a sustainable eHealth industry.