Nigeria’s fourth largest telecom operator, 9Mobile and Mobihealth International, a telemedicine provider have partnered with the Association of Resident Doctors of Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital (AKTH), SHYO and Northfield Health Services to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and other health care challenges in the state.
Kano has the second-highest confirmed cases at 939 after Lagos State, in Nigeria. One of the major benefits of introducing telemedicine is the protection of healthcare workers and citizens.
Telemedicine is the practice of caring for patients remotely when the provider and patient are not physically present with each other. The service will enable doctors in Kano to diagnose, conduct investigations, treat and remotely monitor patients for general medical problems. It will also help to decide the order of treatment for COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 related illnesses.
“Mobihealth’s telemedicine service marks a new beginning for the people of Kano because it provides them access to doctors both in Nigeria and diaspora,” said Nasir Bayero, Chairman of 9Mobile.
To access the service, resident doctors are required to download the Mobihealth Consult app from the app store or by registering on the company’s website.
9Mobile appears to have preempted the partnership with the offering of free access to health and educational websites to support the increasing recourse to online learning by a growing number of academic institutions during the period of lockdown.
The company also zero-rated access to the website of the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), provides free information on COVID-19 on its network and presented over 600 lines and free data access to the NCDC.
