Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and Health Workers Proficiency as a Determinant of Health Information Management: A case study of Health Facilities Ogun Southwestern Nigeria (original) (raw)
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Background: Healthcare system in Nigeria is moving towards digitalization especially in the management of patients’ health information, with a view to harmonizing medical care practice for improved healthcare quality. Information and communication technology (ICT) has transformed the way people collaborate, identify potential collaborators or friends, communicate with each other, and identify information that is relevant to their practice. Rationale: Thus, ICT has been identified as one measure to ensure these emerging trends in the Nation’s healthcare systems. Design/objectives: This study deployed a cross-sectional structured questionnaire to determine ICT knowledge and utilization among healthcare providers at National Hospital Abuja (n=271). Methods: We devised stratified random sampling in the recruitment of participants. Result: It was found that profession, possession of a laptop computer, age and sex were associated with knowledge, utilization and perception of ICT. Most participants were advanced in the use of electronic mail (51.8%) and the Internet (47.1%) mostly acquired through self-efforts (46.5%). However, a greater portion of the participants exhibited poor knowledge of database management (47.8%) and statistical analysis package (46.3%). The vast majority have used computer (95.0%) and the Internet (93.6%) for more than 3 years and many (86.2 percent) expressed a desire for further ICT training. Virtually, all participants in this study opined that ICT will improve medical care quality but some anticipated concerns over medical confidentiality as ICT becomes widely adopted in the country’s healthcare systems. Aside their poor skill in database design and statistical analysis software, healthcare providers at National Hospital, Abuja possessed good knowledge and disposition towards ICT especially for the enhancement of their professional practice and for public health quality improvement. They indicated interest in further ICT training in order to enhance their information sources for an improved practice. It would be worthwhile to enrich their sources of information in order to improve public health. Keywords: Healthcare Providers, Healthcare Systems, Health Information, Health Information Technology, ICT, Nigeria
JMIR Human Factors, 2015
Background: Incorporation of information communication technology in health care has gained wide acceptance in the last two decades. Developing countries are also incorporating information communication technology into the health system including the implementation of electronic medical records in major hospitals and the use of mobile health in rural community-based health interventions. However, the literature on the level of knowledge and utilization of information communication technology by health professionals in those settings is scarce for proper implementation planning.
The Nigerian healthcare system is characterized with paper-based health information management systems and grossly inadequate IT-skilled healthcare providers. Nonetheless, the emerging digitization and globalization has the potentials to speed up the transformation of the current healthcare systems and revolutionize the provider-consumer relationship between healthcare providers and their teeming patients. This cross-sectional study determined the utilization of computer and the Internet among healthcare providers and trainees in a Nigerian public hospital (n=232). More than half (112, 52 %) of the participants were females and the vast majority (154, 72.3 %) were aged forty years or below with a Mean age of 35 ± 9 years. More than a third (78, 36.6 %) of the participants had used the Internet for over three years and early exposure to computer use did significantly influence (χ2= 3.19; p= 0.00) their current computer use. Updates on professional issues appeared the major reason (98, 46.0 %) for searching the Internet and this was mostly accessed (149, 70.0 %) through cell phone. Google Scholar was the most (154, 72.3 %) deployed search engine and participants were often constrained (93, 43.7 %) to use these technologies by inadequate time due to their busy schedules. For better appreciation of the technologies, participants solicited for further training in health IT. Healthcare providers and trainees at Federal Medical Centre, Bida have good disposition towards computer and Internet use especially to enhance their professional practice and to improve patient care quality. They overwhelmingly indicated interests for further ICT training in order to boost their sources of information for an improved healthcare practice. Any effort made to enrich their sources of information and to enhance their usability of these technologies would be worthwhile. Keywords: Computerized Patients Records, Health Information Management, Health Information Technology, Internet, Medical Informatics, Personal Health Records, Developing Countries, Nigeria
An Empirical Study of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in the Nigerian Health Sector
Computational Methods and Algorithms for Medicine and Optimized Clinical Practice, 2019
This study focuses on the assessment of different ICT tools used by Nigerian health workers. Structured questionnaires were used to collect information from 106 respondents. The questionnaire consists of 5 sections, namely: demographics, extent of use of ICT, tasks and activities carried out with ICT, the year of adoption of ICT. Descriptive statistics tools were used for data summarization and visualization. The results showed that the ICT devices were more commonly used among females than male medical personnel which were most common among the age group of 26-30 years and were nurses and doctors with less than 5 years' experience. The earliest ICT tool adopted was the PC in 1994 followed by mobile phones and search engines in 1996 and the projector in 2001. A majority of the health workers used ICT for administrative functions followed by research and personal work. ICT majorly impacted ICT by promoting collaboration among physicians, quicker medical diagnoses of diseases, inc...
International Journal of Advanced Trends in Computer Science and Engineering , 2021
Background:-Incorporation of Information Communication Technology (ICT) in health care system has gained a great momentum of acceptance globally. Thus, ICT adoption in the health system can significantly contribute to improve quality service and accessibility. However, most health care providers in Ethiopia just like other developing countries have underprivileged ICT utilization. The objective of this study is to investigate knowledge, and utilization of Information communication technology among health professionals at Debretabor Referral hospital. Methods:-A cross-sectional study was conducted. Study participants selected using simple random sampling. Data collected through self-administered questionnaire. Descriptive and logistic regression techniques were deployed. SPSS20 was used to analysis. Result:-314 participants enrolled in the study giving an overall response rate of 94.9%. The proportion of those who have good utilization habits for ICT was 39.9% and about 87.2% were good ICT knowledge. Age with [AOR: 4.29, 95% CI (1.781-10.329)], educational status (AOR: 7.57, 95% CI 2.047-27.976), ICT training (AOR: 4.92, 95% CI 2.762-8.779), and ICT knowledge (AOR: 9.01, 95% CI 4.014-20.207) were found to be significantly associated with ICT utilization habits of health professionals. Conclusions:-The result suggests that health professional's ICT utilization habit was relatively low. Age, educational status, ICT training and ICT knowledge were factors significantly associated to ICT utilization. Therefore the Debretabor referral Hospital put up ICT training for healthcare in order to accrued from efficient and effective utilization of ICT.
THE IMPACT OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY KNOWLEDGE ON HEALTH
Simeon F. Umoru, 2024
The ICT plays a critical impact in improving healthcare for individuals and communities. The doctors, patients, hospitals, and laboratories connect with the help of ICT. It also improves the Healthcare Research Analysis. With the use of Artificial Intelligence, it can reduce medical errors. ICT also plays a critical impact in Healthcare Education, not only for the students but also the doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals can take its maximum utilization. ICT also create impact in quick and fast access to patient information for treatment, technology transfer and building capacity to healthcare, quality medical service and solution to healthcare management system. Telemedicine plays a vital impact in this covid-19 pandemic. It gives the benefit of accessing medical patients in remote locations quickly and more conveniently. It gives accessibility and availability to the public from the comfort of being at home. In telemedicine, we can use the video conferencing service by which the patient can talk to a doctor who may be thousand miles away from him. So, this is the healthcare innovation which improves Remote Patients Monitoring. The situation in Nigeria's hospitals as depicted observed by many is worrying. The quality of medical care services available in the Federal Medical hospitals in Nigeria is worrisome and of concern to everyone. Evidences in data analysis have shown that Information and Communication Technology (ICT) skill has positive impact on several professional output including medical service. It is believed that ICT proficiency of medical practitioners could contribute to a higher quality of medical care services. This study therefore examined the impact of information communication and technology knowledge in health. The study employed the numerical and qualitative research philosophy, adopted the survey and case study research strategies, the cross-sectional and qualitative research designs. The study sample covered 120 respondents spread across public hospitals in Abuja, FCT, all located in the North Central Region of Nigeria. In the collection of primary data, the researcher took cognizance of ethnic consideration regarding the confidentiality of data and protection of respondents' trust. The study used the descriptive and inferential statistics of Chi-Square (X 2) were used in data analyses. The finding revealed there is significant impact of ICT Knowledge of patient quick and fast access to medical data. It will make patient to have fast access to their medical records at no long time. Even at patient emergency point, it make fast access to their record. There is significant impact of ICT Knowledge on technology transfer and capacity building to healthcare. It help in document transfer, Medication Administration, clinical support system and Dietary Management. There is significant impact of ICT knowledge on quality of medical service. The utilization of ICT or ehealth tools such as health information systems, websites, and electronic health records medical databases by health professionals will facilitate the following benefits as identified: improve the efficiency of health systems; enable remote consultation diagnosis and treatment through telemedicine etc. there is impact of ICT knowledge on solution to healthcare management system. The system helps the Doctor to continuously monitor the patient's history, diagnostic report, and track the current health condition.
Informatics for Health and Social Care, 2014
The study examines the use of health information and communication technologies (HICTs) by health workers in seven state hospitals and a private hospital in the NorthEastern Zone, Ogun State, Nigeria. The study adopted the descriptive and crosssectional survey design method using a 12-point questionnaire as the instrument for extracting information on the use of HICTs. The questionnaires were personally administered by the researchers; responses were collated, analyzed and presented using descriptive statistics, which includes frequency counts, percentages, tables as well as bars. The outcome shows that a large percentage of the respondents are aware of HICTs. However, only a few have adequate knowledge of and use HICTs for healthcare delivery in spite of its importance to healthcare services. A few have access to computers and HICTs resources relevant for effective healthcare delivery in their hospitals, and only one of the hospitals examined is connected to the internet and none has a website. The paper concludes with recommendations on the need for the management boards of the hospitals examined and the health workers to avail themselves of the opportunities that abound in the use of HICTs.
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This research explores the availability, accessibility and the extent of ICT usage by health professionals in Ilorin metropolis. Data was collected using a sample size of 174 health service providers in 34 public and private hospitals by means of a structured questionnaire. Findings from this study indicate that the ICTs that were commonly available and used by the health professionals are the older ICTs. These include TV set, DSTV, photocopiers, fax machines, and convergent technologies like mobile phones and computers. Although, Internet driven facilities like video-conferencing, teleconferencing, web discussion forums and email among others, were not readily available to the health professionals, a comparative analysis reveals that there was superior availability and use of computers, projectors, e-mails and Internet by health professionals in private hospitals than those in public hospitals. This is as a result of the financial implications of procurement and installation of the...
International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Analysis, 2022
Quality medical care connotes a medical service with inherent ability to meet desired health outcome. Quality medical care is of concern to everyone. This is because it is important to human welfare and efficiency. The situation in Nigeria’s hospitals as depicted in literature and observed by many is worrying. The quality of medical care services available in the Federal Medical Centres (FMCs) in Nigeria is worrisome and of concern to everyone. Empirical evidences in literature have shown that Information and Communication Technology (ICT) skill has positive impact on several professional output including medical service. It is believed that ICT proficiency of medical practitioners could contribute to a higher quality of medical care services. This study therefore examined the influence of ICT skill on the quality of medical care in FMC Owo, Nigeria.