By Blessing wika, Abuja
The Chief of Air staff has officially unveiled the Nigerian Airforce’s telemedicine portal, the first of its kind Nigeria.
It clearly demonstrates the passion with which the leadership of the NAF takes care of the welfare of personnel and their families just in line with one of its vision’s key drivers present in the ceremony are Chief of Air staff Air Marshal Isiaka Oladayo AMAO; National president of NAFOWA Mrs Elizabeth AMAO, Representative of MOBIHealth; Dr Funmi Adewara. The chief of Air staff in his speech, said, “I am particularly delighted to be here this morning to officially unveil the pilot scheme of the Nigerian Air Force Telemedicine Portal. The launch of this revolutionary platform brings to the fore the resolve of this Administration to meet the health needs of personnel of the Nigerian Air Force as well as their families and dependants in a more efficient manner.
“This initiative is driven by the need to prioritise the welfare of our personnel in order to ‘bolster morale’ across all levels, in line with one of the key drivers of my Vision.
“The objective of the platform is to ensure that our personnel maintain good health status to enable them continue ‘to enhance and sustain critical airpower capabilities required for joint force employment in pursuit of national security imperatives,’ which is critical, at this time, towards dealing with the various security challenges confronting our dear Nation.
Telemedicine has the potential for providing accessible, cost-effective and high-quality healthcare services for the Nigerian Air Force and indeed the entire Nation. With the bulk of the country’s healthcare resources concentrated in the larger cities, Telemedicine helps overcome geographical barriers and increases access to healthcare services remotely. Designed to ease the burden of accessing healthcare, this technology literally brings the Hospital to the patients’ doorstep through the use of smart phones and other devices or by visiting any of the Telemedicine Booths within our Bases he said.
“The deployment of this Telemedicine Portal will prove to be particularly useful for personnel deployed in resource-poor or far-flung locations as they will have access to an array of medical specialists within and outside Nigeria at the click of a button. Healthcare then becomes available to all from anywhere and at any time. It will also enable home remote monitoring for those with chronic conditions such as Diabetes, Stroke, Hypertension and Sickle Cell disease as well as facilitate timely access to medical advice on-demand to reduce the risk of complications and hospitalization, thereby cutting down on wastage of resources,” he said.