The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) has partnered with the Healthcare Federation of Nigeria (HFN) and PharmAccess Foundation to enhance disease surveillance reporting by private healthcare facilities. This collaboration aims to establish a pilot for automated reporting into Nigeria's national disease surveillance system. The pilot will test digital systems for transferring Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response data into NCDC's Surveillance Outbreak Response Management and Analysis System.
The agreement was signed in Abuja by the Director-General of NCDC, Dr. Jide Idris; Country Director of PharmAccess, Njide Ndili; and First Vice President of HFN, Dr. Benson Ayodele Cole. Dr. Idris emphasized the importance of private healthcare providers in strengthening disease surveillance and health security. He noted that a significant proportion of the data needed to understand the health system sits within private facilities.
The partnership aims to improve the quality, completeness, and timeliness of disease reports while reducing the reporting burden on participating private facilities. According to Dr. Idris, disease surveillance and health security cannot be effectively achieved without the private sector. The collaboration will strengthen links between private healthcare delivery and national surveillance.
The agreement follows a survey conducted by HFN and PharmAccess to identify challenges private providers faced in meeting disease reporting requirements. Dr. Cole, who represented HFN, said the partnership would build on the survey's findings. The survey provided an opportunity to listen to private-sector providers and understand some of the challenges they face with surveillance reporting.
Under the agreement, HFN will engage private healthcare providers and technology partners, work with NCDC to select participating facilities, and jointly lead the pilot's design and implementation. PharmAccess will provide technical support on data exchange between systems, digital standards, and system design, alongside knowledge transfer and documentation.
Njide Ndili said the foundation would draw on its experience with disease surveillance in Kenya while developing an approach suited to Nigeria's health system. The partnership will ensure that data-sharing arrangements comply with applicable data protection laws and health information governance requirements, with safeguards for security, confidentiality, and appropriate use.
The pilot will support improvements to surveillance reporting without changing providers' existing statutory reporting obligations. The partnership is expected to enhance disease surveillance and health security in Nigeria by leveraging the strengths of both public and private healthcare sectors.
Key points
- The partnership aims to improve disease surveillance reporting by private healthcare facilities.
- The pilot will test digital systems for transferring disease surveillance data into NCDC's national system.
- The collaboration will strengthen links between private healthcare delivery and national surveillance.
