Dr. Babajide Oyeduntan, vice president of Business Development and Sales, Interswitch eClat, made this known recently during the Lagos Health Summit 5.0., at the MUSON Center in Lagos.

The Lagos Health Summit is an annual conference that brings together healthcare professionals, policymakers, and industry experts to discuss the latest trends and innovations in healthcare.

The theme of this year’s event, ‘The Future of Wellness: Fostering Collaboration for a Healthier Population,’ set the stage for in-depth discussions and collaborations aimed at fostering a healthier population through innovative health-tech solutions.

The summit featured a rich agenda of panel sessions and presentations, designed to inspire, and equip participants with the tools and knowledge to drive change in the health sector.

The Lagos Health Summit, which was sponsored by Interswitch eClat, was attended by key stakeholders, including health professionals, policymakers, industry leaders and researchers, among others.

Delivering a keynote address, Oyeduntan highlighted the numerous benefits of telemedicine, including operational efficiency, digitisation of patient records, and establishing a centralised database for secure medical history storage, treatments, and test results. He noted that these advancements enable patients to consult with healthcare professionals remotely, ensuring continuous and accessible care.

He said,

“The future of wellness hinges on our ability to leverage technology for improved health outcomes. Infusing technology into the healthcare system will drive efficiency by streamlining operations, enhancing patient record management, and enabling remote consultations. Telemedicine is critical as it offers operational efficiency and seamless payment solutions. Interswitch eClat is at the forefront of this transformation, enhancing the quality of healthcare services in Nigeria and beyond. We are excited to drive these innovations and improve healthcare delivery for all.”

The Vice President further revealed that Interswitch recently introduced a Smart Health Information Platform (SHIP) with the Lagos State Government, stating that the platform will enhance healthcare services by offering a unified system for accurate, up-to-date patient information accessible across various facilities, improving coordination and efficiency.

Digitialising health records and administrative processes is expected to reduce paperwork and bureaucratic delays, allowing healthcare workers to focus more on patient care.

Additionally, SHIP will lower healthcare costs and ensure financial transparency through its integrated payment system, mitigating the risks of fraud and corruption within the healthcare system.

Oyeduntan also highlighted that Interswitch eClat platform is used across federal and state healthcare centers, as well as private hospitals across the country.

Interswitch eClat is committed to transforming health services delivery in Nigeria and beyond. By harnessing the power of innovative health-tech solutions, the company aims to create a more efficient, accessible, and patient-centric healthcare ecosystem.

Nigeria’s healthcare industry remains grossly underfunded with several other challenges, lacking a truly national/integrated framework for healthcare service delivery due to fragmentation among health stakeholders.

A recent report from Knight Frank estimates Nigeria would require about $82 billion of investment in health-care assets to reach the global average.

Healthcare institutions continue to struggle with daily operations due to a myriad of constraints and process inefficiencies.

The foregoing is the backdrop against which this latest public-private partnership milestone championed by the Lagos State Government is being launched with a view to positioning Lagos, Nigeria’s largest economic hub as a model for sub-nationals in strategic healthcare delivery interventions.

Babajide Olusola Sanwoolu, the governor of Lagos State, highlighted the significance of the Lagos State Smart Health Information Platform Project as one unprecedented in Nigeria till date.

The Governor, in his remarks asserted that;

“The signing of the Concession Agreement between the Lagos State Government and Interswitch for the implementation of the Smart Health Information Platform (SHIP) is a ground-breaking development which signifies the start of a comprehensive technological overhaul in Lagos State’s health sector, aimed at enhancing residents’ access to healthcare services.”

Governor Sanwoolu further remarked that “I believe that this platform represents a significant and innovative approach to utilizing technology for accessing health information. It is poised to deliver numerous benefits and eliminate payment barriers, thereby encouraging citizens to actively engage with the process.”

Capitalizing on over 2 decades of experience and strategic expertise digitizing transactions and aggregating technology platforms across Africa, by virtue of this concession, Interswitch will support the State Government in securely leveraging data harnessed from electronic medical records deployed across all hospitals (public and private) and allied locations within the industry value chain, to create enhanced experiences for all stakeholders, from administrators to medical personnel, patients, as well as for better planning and policy-making, ultimately.

The strategic objective is to address gaps within the healthcare delivery system by creating an ecosystem that facilitates deeper connections between stakeholders and essentially addressing fragmentation by connecting patients to doctors, practices to public offices and patients to their medical data, thereby solving the operational problems of hospitals and healthcare providers through the robust over-arching technology infrastructure that LAGSHIP represents.

Commenting after the signing ceremony, which was jointly signed by the Honourable Commissioner for Health, Dr. Akin Abayomi and the Special Adviser to The Governor on Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs), Mrs. Bukola Odoe, and witnessed by the Executive Governor and selected members of the Lagos State Executive Council at the State House, Marina, Mitchell Elegbe, the founder and group managing director/chief executive officer of Interswitch Group, remarked:

“22 years ago, we set out with a clear vision to solve social problems in Nigeria, starting by digitizing the use of cash, making it available to Nigerians just-in-time. Today, despite the incremental efforts of Interswitch and other players over the years, digital payments are estimated to be still less than 20% of total transactions in the economy.

This realization suggests that there is tremendous value, financial and otherwise, locked up in sectors and areas where government is a key player, particularly in the aspects of healthcare, transportation, and other basic social services. This vision we had from the outset underpinned our acquisition of eClat Healthcare 5 years ago, and initiatives such as Lagos-SHIP are unfolding strategic interventions along that transformational roadmap.

 We are highly delighted that after a rigorous selection process, the Lagos State Government has deemed it fit to partner with us at the Interswitch Group on this epoch-making journey to digitize the healthcare system, uniting disparate elements into one holistic platform that creates value and enhances the experience of all stakeholders, just like we’ve done in the sphere of financial services, leveraging technology.”

Also speaking at the signing ceremony, Dr. Wallace Ogufere, the managing director for Interswitch eClat, Interswitch’s Healthtech Venture, opined that the Lagos State Government’s pioneering initiative in the form of LAGSHIP is significant in terms of advancing the outlook for Healthcare Management and Administration in a frontier-market such as Nigeria, and moving closer to what obtains in developed economies.

In his words “The go-live of the Lagos Smart Health Information Platform will significantly close many identified gaps in electronic medical records management, essentially addressing long-standing constraints including process inefficiencies, limited transparency and inadequacy of necessary tools and supplies, among other challenges.”

This partnership between the Lagos State Government and Interswitch represents a unique model for public-private partnership in the healthcare delivery space, and one which is expected to be a veritable reference point for national and sub-national governments in Africa going forward.