Platform to give Nigerians control of medical records launched

Nigerians can now store, manage and share their medical records from different healthcare providers through a new digital platform, Medbankr, launched to tackle the growing problem of fragmented health information in the country.

The platform, described by its founders as Nigeria’s first patient-controlled health continuity and intelligence platform, provides users with a secure digital health vault where laboratory results, prescriptions, scan reports and clinical notes can be kept in one place and accessed when needed.

For many Nigerians, medical records remain scattered across paper files, hospital folders, WhatsApp messages and personal memories. Medbankr said the situation can result in repeated tests, delays in treatment and loss of important clinical information when patients change hospitals, relocate or seek care from different specialists.

The platform is designed to give users control over their health information by allowing them to organise medical documents in one digital location and determine who can access them.

Through its Secure Sharing feature, users can share selected records with doctors, specialists or family caregivers while retaining control over their information and consent.

Medbankr also incorporates artificial intelligence tools to support users in managing different aspects of their healthcare. Its Guided Symptom Support feature helps users understand symptoms and identify when and where to seek appropriate care, while making clear that diagnosis and treatment remain the responsibility of qualified medical professionals.

The platform’s Medication Management feature provides reminders, dosage tracking and refill alerts, while its Vital and Health Tracking tool monitors health information and uses AI-assisted pattern detection to identify trends or unusual changes that may need medical attention.

Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Medbankr, Williams Popoola, said the platform was not designed to replace doctors but to improve the information available to them when treating patients.

“We’re not building an AI that replaces doctors,” Popoola said.

He said Nigeria needed more doctors and better hospitals, but also required infrastructure that would ensure patients’ health information remained available throughout their lives.

“What we are building is the layer underneath: the infrastructure that organises a person’s health information, supports smarter decisions, and ensures that when a patient finally sits across from a doctor, that encounter is as informed and productive as possible,” he said.

Medbankr said Nigeria has approximately 67,000 doctors serving more than 230 million people, making continuity of care particularly important in a healthcare system under significant pressure.

According to the company, patients may visit several hospitals, laboratories and specialists during their lifetime, creating multiple points where important medical information can be lost.

The platform is intended to complement existing healthcare services by enabling patients to arrive at medical consultations with better-organised records and giving healthcare providers access to relevant information, with the patient’s consent.

Medbankr is also targeting institutional users, including employers, health insurers, universities, corporate health maintenance organisations (HMOs) and public health programmes, which can deploy the platform for their populations without developing digital health infrastructure from scratch.

The company said the Medbankr application is currently available on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store.