HEALTH INFORMATICS: GATEWAY TO HEALTH CARE DELIVERY SYSTEM A CASE STUDY OF FEDERAL MINISTRY OF HEALTH , FCT ABUJA.

ABSTRACT

The advent of
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is gaining ground in all areas
of life and developing nations are taking advantage of this opportunity in
various sectors including the development of health care systems. This paper
presents a study that identifies the effects of health informatics as tools for
effective health delivery system in Nigeria using the Federal Ministry of
Health, FCT as a case study. to achieve the objective of the study, both
primary and secondary sources of data were employed and analyzed through
qualitative descriptive  analysis..
Findings reveal that Information Technology (IT) has becomes a major tool
in adequate and effective delivery of health services and has had an innovative
impact on quality of life. The study therefore recommends that effective
approach is to manage the utilization of ICT in medicine through the use of
legislative and regulatory measures looking into legal reforms to enhance the
privacy of health information. For example, empowering patients with rights to
consent to disclosure, laws to limit disclosure when consent is absent,
incorporating industry wide security protections and establishing a national
data protection authority.

Key-Words: 
ICT, Development, Health Informatics, Health delivery and Regulatory.