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From Charity Nwakaudu, Abuja
Healthcare technology should be deployed to reduce the administrative burden on Nigerian clinicians and improve patient care, not replace doctors, nurses and other frontline health workers, Chief Executive Officer of Vannin Group Inc., Oliver van Veen, has said.
Van Veen stated this in an article on digital healthcare, where he urged policymakers and healthcare providers to put clinicians at the centre of Nigeria’s ongoing digital transformation.
He noted that Nigerian healthcare professionals are working under immense pressure due to rising patient demand, workforce shortages and fragmented health information systems, saying technology should serve as a tool to improve efficiency rather than substitute human expertise.
According to him, the migration and uneven distribution of health workers have further strained the country’s healthcare system despite government efforts to strengthen workforce planning and address migration challenges.
“An electronic health record cannot replace a nurse. Artificial intelligence cannot replace clinical judgement. A dashboard cannot compensate for unsafe staffing,” he said.
Van Veen stressed that the focus of digital health initiatives should be on helping healthcare workers recover valuable time lost to repetitive administrative processes.
He observed that many hospitals still require clinicians to enter the same patient information into multiple paper records, departmental registers and insurance documents, while spending valuable time searching for patient folders, reconstructing medical histories and repeating laboratory tests already conducted elsewhere.
According to him, such practices reduce productivity, increase the likelihood of errors and leave clinicians with less time to attend to patients.
He explained that an effective digital health system should capture patient information once and securely make it available to authorised healthcare providers whenever required, allowing doctors and nurses to access relevant medical histories, laboratory results, medications and allergies without relying on multiple disconnected records.
Van Veen also called for healthcare technology to be tailored to Nigeria’s realities, including varying hospital capacities, inconsistent internet connectivity and existing referral systems, warning that adopting foreign digital solutions without local adaptation could create fresh operational challenges.
He emphasised the need for adequate staff training before introducing new digital platforms, saying healthcare workers should receive role-specific instruction, practical support and opportunities to report challenges during implementation.
He further urged hospital managers to monitor whether digital systems are actually reducing workloads by measuring admission times, duplicate data entry, documentation efficiency and the speed at which technical issues are resolved.
The Vannin Group chief executive said responsible automation could help reduce routine administrative work through appointment reminders, inventory management, coding support and automated report generation while ensuring that clinical decisions remain under the control of qualified healthcare professionals.
He added that digital technology could also improve workforce planning by providing reliable data on staffing levels, patient demand and service delivery, enabling health managers to deploy personnel more effectively.
Van Veen, however, maintained that technology alone cannot solve Nigeria’s healthcare workforce challenges, stressing that sustained investment in medical education, improved remuneration, safer working conditions, professional development and effective leadership remains essential.
He said the ultimate goal of health technology should be to help healthcare professionals deliver safer, faster and more efficient care rather than merely making hospitals appear more technologically advanced.
