Towards improving the quality of healthcare delivery in Nigeria through innovations and technology, Stack Diagnostics has introduced an online diagnostic platform, known as DiagnoseMe.Africa to boost treatment outcomes.
Currently in Nigeria, records show that many patients have become victims of wrong diagnosis due to lack of adequate modern equipment to aid practitioners in arriving at informed decisions on their medical conditions.
According to the management of Stack Diagnostics, Nigeria’s first molecular diagnostics and personalised medicine company, DiagnoseMe.Africa would improve patients’ experiences and save cost while getting to the root of their ailments.
Evidence has shown that all over the world, continuous technological developments in healthcare have saved countless lives by improving the quality of diagnosis and treatment.
Speaking at the unveiling in Lagos recently, Chief Executive Officer of Stack Diagnostics, Dr. Abasi Ene-Obong, said the launch of the online diagnostic platform was timely, considering the rise in the burden of diseases requiring molecular and genetic testing in Nigeria.
The diseases, according to Ene-Obong, include: breast cancer, cancer of the lung, cervical cancer, malaria, sexually transmitted diseases, among others.
Ene-Obong affirmed that the online medical service, besides reduction in the cost of treatment, would eliminate issues of drug resistance, especially with oncology drugs; improve the delivery of telemedicine and explore the use of ICT in health care service delivery.
He explained: “It is Nigeria’s first molecular diagnostics and personalised medicine company. We provide genetic testing services and other hard-to- access services to patients in Africa, using a centralised lab approach.
“We provide an online market place for ordering test, receiving test results, confirming diagnoses and referring patients for secondary and tertiary care. It eliminates the bureaucracy and hassles involved in seeing doctors offline, thereby saving cost and time.”
Ene-Obong revealed that lack of modern tools was fuelling medical tourism among Nigerians as many of them did not have the needed platform to search for doctors over their conditions.
He added that lack of equipped laboratories and working tools resulted in poor referral network, poor navigation of specialist healthcare providers as well as truncated treatment plans and inadequate treatment.
In her remarks, a Medical Adviser, DiagnoseMe.Africa, Dr. Ani Nchiewe, urged Nigerians to save cost and avoid the issue of drug resistance when accessing healthcare by embracing online diagnostics.
Nchiewe, who is a Consultant Radiologist at the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, Cross River State, noted that the newly-launched DiagnoseMe.Africa would improve patients’ experiences and save cost while getting to the root of their ailments.
“It affords us the unparalleled ability to improve healthcare service delivery and eliminate certain avoidable need for referral abroad for tests not usually done in Nigeria,” she said.
Nchiewe stated that medical online platform was a patient digitalised problem-solving tool that could function across 36 states in Nigeria, where the doctors provide medical service free of charge to patients.
Also speaking at the event, one of the partners of the innovation and Executive Director, Synlab Nigeria, Dr. Tolulope Adewole, said the partnership was aimed at improving the healthcare sector of the country and to reduce medical tourism among Nigerians.
