The Head of Application & Development, Bradford Teaching Hospital, NHS Foundation Trust, United Kingdom, Dotun Oluyade, has argued that digital infrastructure would fix the nation’s fragmented health data.

In a recent chat with The Guardian, he observed “Nigeria’s healthcare system faces persistent challenge.”

He noticed patient information was often fragmented across Federal Medical Centres, state hospitals, private providers, and primary healthcare facilities.

He said records generated at one point of care might not be readily available when a patient moves elsewhere, noting that the fragmentation could contribute to delayed diagnosis, repeated investigations, incomplete medical histories, and unnecessary out-of-pocket expenditure.

Specifically, he disclosed two national infrastructure developments could help address important aspects of this challenge: the expansion of Nigeria’s national fibre-optic backbone and the rollout of a national postcode system.

Oluyade said Fibre-optic connectivity provides the digital “pipes” through which healthcare information can move rapidly between geographically dispersed facilities.

The postcode system, he insisted, can provide a standardised geographic reference that complements patient identifiers and demographic information, supporting more accurate patient and location matching.

He said, ‘the clinical potential of improved connectivity is particularly significant for medical imaging. DICOM images generated at remote facilities can be large and difficult to transfer where connectivity is poor. With reliable fibre connectivity and appropriate cloud infrastructure, diagnostic images could be securely transmitted to specialist centres. A radiologist based in an urban tertiary hospital could therefore review a scan generated at a remote facility, extending specialist expertise beyond major cities and potentially reducing diagnostic turnaround times.’

Specifically, he said the next requirement is interoperability.

To him, ‘healthcare organisations often operate different electronic medical record, laboratory, radiology, pharmacy, and patient administration systems. Connecting these systems to the same network does not mean that they can automatically exchange or understand each other’s data. Common standards such as Health Level Seven (HL7) and Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) are therefore essential.’

With appropriate implementation, he added these standards can allow authorised systems to exchange structured clinical information, including allergies, medications, laboratory results, diagnostic reports, and referrals, without repeated manual data entry. This, he added, could reduce administrative burden, improve data quality, and minimise unnecessary duplication of investigations.

Concerning economic implications, he said when previous results and imaging are accessible to authorised clinicians, patients may be less likely to undergo duplicate tests simply because earlier records cannot be located.

This, he argued could reduce avoidable costs for families while enabling scarce healthcare resources to be used more efficiently.

Ultimately, he noted the nation’s opportunity is not to digitise individual hospitals but build an interconnected national health-data ecosystem.

To him, fibre provides the pipes; postcodes provide an important geographic reference; patient identifiers establish identity; and HL7 and FHIR provide the common language through which systems exchange information.

In conclusion, Oluyade suggested, ‘information should securely and accurately follow the patient, rather than remain trapped within the institution where it was created. When these infrastructure components are combined with strong governance, cybersecurity, data protection, clinical safety, and workforce capability, digital infrastructure can become a foundation for more connected, efficient, and patient-centred healthcare across Nigeria.’