Telco says USSD, telemedicine can boost HBP management

Nigeria’s telecoms brand, 9mobile, has said that leveraging the Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) and adopting telemedicine will grant Nigerians easy access to healthcare services to manage High Blood Pressure (HBP).

Disclosing this at the second edition of the telecom virtual health talk series themed ‘Responding to the Rising Challenge of Hypertension in a Pandemic-depressed World’, health brand strategist, Dr. Juliet Offiah, said “Africa is the worst hit by hypertension” due to poverty, lack of adequate helpful information and access to quality healthcare.

She said telemedicine would help healthcare systems around the world a great deal to keep record of patients, adding that this way, the country will be able to keep track and retrieve data easily.

According to her, the USSD can be leveraged for check-ups and reminders, which is where 9mobile has continued to show impressive initiative in supporting the health sector.

Her words: “Adoption of telemedicine, training and expansion of community health workers and exploring partnerships will help patients access information real-time. Telemedicine has come to stay; people should be able to have access to health services virtually, especially during this pandemic.”

Offiah lamented that the onslaught of the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) impacted on the number of emerging cases of HBP across continents, as people battle with stress and their mental health.

She noted that global and local medical healthcare resources had remained largely focused disproportionately on containing COVID-19 with little attention paid to other medical conditions.

Offiah emphasised on the need for cutting down on stress level, checking blood pressure regularly and observing a disciplined regiment of prescribed medications as helpful measures in managing HBP.

Reiterating 9mobile’s commitment to the wellbeing of Nigerians, the Executive Director, Regulatory and Corporate Affairs, Abdulrahman Ado, said: “We decided to put the spotlight on the subject of hypertension because of the worrying trend we are beginning to see. At 9mobile, we will continue to drive initiatives that improve the quality of life of Nigerians through sensitisation and collaborations, which informed our partnership with award-winning telemedicine provider, Mobihealth International, to enable more Nigerians access care virtually from the safety and comfort of their homes.”