Professionals in the health sector have identified shortage of health professionals, inadequate medical equipment, poor healthcare funding and shortage of health professionals as the major challenges confronting health sector in the country.

The medical experts also identified disease burden, poor health indicators, and poor health insurance coverage as bane of the health sector in the country.

Speaking at the third annual lecture of the faculty of science, University of Medical Sciences (UNIMED), Ondo, the medical gurus stressed the need to deploy technology and innovation to advance and catalyze healthcare in Nigeria.

The Keynote Speaker at the conference, themed “The Future of Science and Healthcare: Harnessing the Power of Innovation and Technology”, Prof. John Oladapo Obafunwa, who is the Director-General of Nigerian Institute of Medical Research, represented by Dr. David Oladele said “In a country of over 230 million people, 70 percent live in rural areas, life expectancy is 53.7 for male, while 55.4 is for female.

He added that “healthcare in Nigeria is further worsened by issues such as inadequate healthcare infrastructure, poor healthcare funding, shortage of health professionals, high disease burden, poor health indicators and poor health insurance coverage among others.”

In spite of the state of the nation’s healthcare, Prof. Obafunwa opined that all hope is not lost as Nigeria can take a cue from global trends in innovation to revamp and advance its healthcare system.

Specifically, he highlighted “telemedicine, mobile health (mHealth) applications, electronic medical records (EMRs), data analytics and Artificial Intelligence (AI) including Machine learning as some of the innovations that can be adopted.

The Vice-Chancellor of the university, Prof. Ebunoluwa Adejuyigbe acknowledged the challenges facing Nigeria’s healthcare.

She said “together we can cultivate a culture of innovation that encourages collaboration among healthcare professionals, researchers and technologists. By working hand in hand we can develop solutions that are not only effective but also sustainable and scalable”.

The Dean, faculty of science, Prof. Mojisola Nkiko said the theme of the conference was carefully chosen with a view to addressing different aspects of science and healthcare.

According to her, “technology and innovation are critical to achieving sustainable development, particularly when properly harnessed by all health professionals”. (The Sun)