Healthcare is a fundamental human right, and the goal of every country’s health sector is to render the best form of care with affordable rates using the best facilities, infrastructure, and trained professionals to ultimately improve quality of life. However, over the past years, poor healthcare delivery has been the situation in Nigeria.
Nigeria, a country with over 206.1 million people, ranked 157th in health care delivery out of 167 countries, according to the Legatum Prosperity Index 2023. Despite the notable efforts by the government to improve healthcare, the World Health Organization (WHO), in an annual report in 2022, recorded unacceptable indices of healthcare outcome indicators in Nigeria, evidenced by the increased maternal and child mortality ratio: 814 in 100,000 and 104 in 1,000 births, respectively.
Documented problems with the health sector include substandard facilities/structures, knowledge inertia, corruption, healthcare inequity, a continually decreasing number of experienced professionals, and a shortage in drug supplies, as well as the high cost of services.
How is AI poised to transform Nigerian healthcare?
Artificial (AI) means the ability of machines to perform highly specialized human-like tasks that include cognitive and critical thinking abilities with speed and accuracy. AI systems and applications have the potential of increasing the efficiency of services and ensuring timely healthcare delivery; these can greatly assist in dissipating the problems of the health sector in Nigeria.
Developed countries like the US are already experiencing the positive impact of AI systems in healthcare delivery, as analysis has proposed a reduction of healthcare costs in the country by 150 billion dollars by 2026.
The universal use of smartphones and evolving interests/investments in technology provide countless opportunities for the use of AI in improving healthcare outcomes even in the rural and underdeveloped areas. Artificial intelligence tools have the capacity to carry out automated measurements. In recent times, AI has been used to detect the level of fracture and trauma in accident patients.
AI applications that are presently in use include:
- mHealth: Some AI tools are used for disease surveillance, appointment reminders, supervised treatment, and remote consultations to ensure early detection of disease, prevent spread, and ensure adequate treatment provisions.
- Telemedicine: Patients now utilize platforms such as Zoom and social media platforms to receive consultations from healthcare professionals, thereby improving timely access to healthcare services.
- Electronic Health Records (EHR): EHR improves patient data collection and management, scheduled patient care, and provides a data set for AI algorithms.
Case Studies: AI Solutions Making a Difference in Nigeria
The use of AI in healthcare delivery in Nigeria and other African countries is still in its infant stages. However, the Nigerian government has shown its support for the application of AI tools in healthcare through the establishment of the Nigerian Artificial Intelligence Strategy Committee (NAISC).
- Electronic health records (EHR), medical imaging, telemedicine, and mHealth are the only reported forms of AI-assisted technology currently in use in the country. However, quite a number of healthcare institutions in the country have made efforts in ensuring more implementation of AI in service deliveries, and an example of such include:
- The use of AI-imbibed technology by the largest kidney centre in Abuja for diagnosis has undergone trials in 2022.
- Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) carried out research using a deep learning-based AI-driven diagnosis system to facilitate breast cancer diagnosis. The system uses machine learning to analyze mammograms and detect early signs of breast cancer.
- AI software was used to analyze X-rays taken with the Fujifilm Xair ultra-portable, handheld, battery-powered X-ray machine in August 2022 for tuberculosis in some rural communities.
- A Nigerian health care startup company named Wellvis has manufactured an AI-driven telemedicine platform called Wellahealth. The platform contains AI tools that assist in consultations and chronic care for diabetes and sickle cell patients. This increases access to healthcare in rural areas.
Challenges and Opportunities in Implementing AI for Nigerian Healthcare
The knowledge about medical practices driven by AI in Nigeria is limited, and this may be due to the fact that AI-centered education isn’t included in medical training. Socio-economic factors such as lack of stable electricity and poor technological infrastructure also contribute to the progress of AI-driven services.
Ethical issues, including privacy and safety of patient information against any form of cyber attack, have been a cause for concern since the invention and introduction of AI systems in healthcare. However, in 2019 the World Health Organization (WHO) set up an ethico-legal committee of experts that ensure the safety of patient information in order to protect the patients fundamental human right of privacy. The threat to physician autonomy depends on the way AI systems are used. AI systems should only help in decision-making and not dictate the decision.
A research firm focused on healthcare marketing has given insights that the healthcare market can grow from $0.01B in 2022 to $0.13B by 2030 due to the use of AI.
AI systems can be used to improve the Nigerian healthcare sector.
- Supervised, unsupervised, and reinforced machine learning can be used for disease risk estimation, image analysis, and AI-assisted surgeries.
- Artificial neural networks can help in decision-making; they can also be used to predict the incidence of a pathology, in drug manufacturing, and treatment personalization.
- Natural language processing can be used for analysis of data, clinical trials, and storing patient information.
- Support vector machines can be used in obtaining and arranging patient data. It is a helpful tool in evidence-based decision-making, analyzing radiographs, improving surgeons’s workflows, and providing results of complex surgeries.
The Future of AI in Nigerian Healthcare
In a few years to come, it’s expected that healthcare professionals will efficiently employ AI systems to make timely decisions, keep up-to-date electronic patient records, fast-track drug research and production, ensure patient treatment compliance, predict the incidence or reoccurrence of a pathology, improve surgical procedures, analyze images and make diagnoses, manage medications, answer common patient concerns, and train and educate upcoming practitioners, thereby leading to increased access to healthcare, timely interventions, accurate diagnoses, improved healthcare outcomes, reduced mortality, and enhanced quality of life.
Conclusion
The adoption of more artificially intelligent systems will improve healthcare delivery as it provides solutions to most of the problems in the Nigerian health sector today. AI has the potential to bridge the gap and positively improve healthcare outcomes and quality of life while reducing the cost of services and difficulties encountered in accessing them.
