FG seeks balance between digital technology, physical healthcare

The Federal Government is seeking a balance between digital technology and physical healthcare, with stakeholders targeting nationwide implementation of the National Telemedicine Guidelines from 2027 to 2031 to expand access to healthcare, strengthen patient safety and connect underserved communities to specialist services.

The stakeholders, including government officials, medical regulators and development partners, said the successful rollout would require clear professional standards, sustainable financing, reliable digital infrastructure and effective referral systems linking online consultations to physical healthcare facilities.

They spoke at the Nigerian Telehealth Conference 2.0 in Abuja on Tuesday, organised by Mobihealth International with the theme, “The Future of Healthcare is Connected: Click and Brick.”

The Mandate Secretary of the FCT Health Services and Environment Secretariat, Dr. Adedolapo Fasawe, said the expansion of telemedicine required clear legislation and professional guidelines to address accountability when remote medical consultations resulted in complications.

Fasawe said doctors had long provided medical advice through telephone calls and other informal channels without adequate structures to define their responsibilities.

“Most of us here are doctors, and I want to say that we have all practised telemedicine at some point. Every day, our relatives, our friends, people from the village would call us and say, ‘My neighbour has this problem, what do I do?’ or ‘My child has been vomiting all night, what do I do?’” she said.

She disclosed that the FCT had introduced a pilot telemedicine initiative about two and a half years ago, which continued to operate informally in its primary healthcare facilities.

According to her, structured telemedicine services could reduce unnecessary journeys to specialist hospitals, cut healthcare costs and improve access to medical advice for people living far from advanced facilities.

“The measure of digital transformation should not just be how many calls we made. It should be how well it serves our people, from the city centres all the way to the rural communities,” Fasawe said.

She called for clinical standards, cybersecurity, professional indemnity and clearly defined institutional responsibilities to accompany the expansion of digital healthcare.

The Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Mobihealth International, Dr. Funmi Adewara, said stakeholders had recently completed the validation of the National Telemedicine Guidelines and agreed on an implementation timeline covering 2027 to 2031.

She, however, noted that the guidelines remained subject to ministerial approval and other institutional processes, adding that the next priority was to translate the policy framework into practical healthcare services.

“Healthcare is a fundamental human right, and in the 21st century, no Nigerian or African should have to travel for four hours to access a consultation that technology can safely facilitate in four minutes,” Adewara said.

She explained that connected healthcare should link patients to medical professionals, communities to hospitals, pharmacies to prescriptions, laboratories to clinicians and primary healthcare facilities to specialist services.

According to her, telemedicine must strengthen rather than replace healthcare workers by supporting timely diagnosis, referrals and continuity of care.

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“Policies do not treat patients. Guidelines do not, by themselves, connect rural communities to doctors. And innovation without implementation cannot deliver universal health coverage,” she said.

Adewara called for interoperable systems, clear regulatory pathways, sustainable reimbursement arrangements, workforce training and stronger public-private partnerships to move the country beyond isolated digital health projects.

The Special Adviser to the President on Health, Dr. Salma Anas Ibrahim, said digital technology was one of the eight pillars identified in the initial health policy direction of President Bola Tinubu’s administration.

She said telemedicine could help pregnant women in remote communities obtain timely medical guidance, enable mothers to access specialist advice for their children and connect patients at primary healthcare centres to specialists in secondary and tertiary hospitals.

However, Anas warned that digital healthcare must not replace competent health workers, reliable diagnostics, essential medicines or emergency services.

She identified electricity, internet connectivity, sustainable financing, regulation, interoperability, data privacy and cybersecurity as essential requirements for nationwide implementation.

Anas urged stakeholders to measure progress through improved health outcomes rather than the number of digital platforms launched.

She said the proposed Abuja Declaration on Telehealth 2026 should establish clear recommendations, identify responsible institutions and provide realistic steps for implementation across federal, state and local governments.

The Registrar of the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN), Dr. Fatima Kyari, said the council was developing telemedicine regulations as part of its ongoing review of the Code of Medical Ethics in Nigeria.

Kyari said the framework would address professional competence, patient identification, data protection, cybersecurity, medical records management, prescribing and complaints handling.

“Telemedicine is not medicine without accountability. It is proper medicine delivered through another channel,” she said.

She stressed that doctors providing remote consultations must be registered to practise in Nigeria, including practitioners living abroad who offer services to Nigerian patients.

Kyari also disclosed that the council was updating its digital register of medical practitioners to enable telemedicine platforms to verify the professional credentials of doctors through an application programming interface.

She said professional indemnity insurance was necessary to manage clinical risks and protect patients in cases of negligent practice.

Emphasising the need to link digital consultations with physical care, she said: “For every telemedicine platform that has a click, you must mention where that brick is, otherwise you are practising illegally.”

The World Health Organisation (WHO) Representative to Nigeria, Dr. Pavel Ursu, said the validation of the national guidelines marked an important step but stressed that effective implementation would determine their impact.

Ursu said WHO had supported the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare through capacity development, technical reviews, stakeholder consultations and the development of the implementation framework.

He identified five priorities for successful implementation: strengthening existing health systems, ensuring interoperability, protecting patient safety and privacy, promoting equitable access and aligning stakeholders behind a nationally led framework.

“From WHO’s perspective, the real question is not simply how much technology and how much connectivity we deploy, but whether this technology helps countries, Nigeria, to deliver better, safer and more equitable health services to its people,” he said.

Ursu warned against creating disconnected digital platforms, saying telemedicine should be integrated into primary healthcare, referral networks and existing health information systems.

The Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC), Dr. Jide Idris, represented by his Senior Technical Adviser, Dr. Abiola Oshunni, said telemedicine could also strengthen disease surveillance, early warning and emergency response.

He said connected healthcare platforms could help frontline health workers identify unusual symptoms, report potential public health threats and transmit information to relevant authorities for timely action.

However, he stressed that telemedicine systems must complement existing disease surveillance structures rather than duplicate them.

The Chairman of the Conference of Health Commissioners and Ekiti State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Oyebanji Filani, said digital healthcare could help Nigeria address workforce shortages and geographical barriers to medical services.

Filani said telemedicine and other digital platforms offered opportunities to improve access to affordable healthcare, particularly in underserved communities, as health professionals continued to migrate across countries.

He urged policymakers, healthcare providers and technology companies to work together to expand the responsible use of digital health solutions.

Similarly, the Director of Specialist Hospitals Division, Dr. Amina Z. Kazaure, who represented the Director of Hospital Services, Dr. Abisola Adegoke, said telemedicine could improve remote consultations, specialist support, follow-up care and referral coordination.

She called for the integration of telehealth into primary healthcare and hospital services, investment in digital infrastructure and workforce capacity, sustainable financing and evidence-based monitoring of results.

The Director-General of the National Orientation Agency, Malam Lanre Issa-Onilu, represented by Dr. Oloya Abdullahi, pledged the agency’s support for public education on telemedicine through its nationwide structures across the 36 states and the FCT.

He said the agency would work with Mobihealth International to promote credible health information, address misconceptions and build public confidence in digital healthcare.

Issa-Onilu stressed that public awareness and trust were essential to ensuring that citizens could safely use available telemedicine services.

The Country Director of the Doctors Medical Aid Foundation (DMAF), Dr. Hameed Adediran, who led the panel discussion, said the successful transformation of healthcare through digital innovation required coordination across key sectors, with patients at the centre of decision-making.

“This conversation sits at the intersection of policy, regulation, financing, and of course, at the heart of it all is the patient,” he said.