The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) has signed a Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) with the Healthcare Federation of Nigeria (HFN) and PharmAccess Foundation. This partnership aims to strengthen disease surveillance by integrating data from private healthcare facilities into Nigeria's national surveillance system. The MoC was signed in Abuja by Dr. Jide Idris, NCDC's Director-General, Njide Ndili, PharmAccess's Country Director, and Dr. Benson Ayodele Cole, HFN's First Vice President.
The pilot project will test digital and interoperable approaches to improve the quality, completeness, and timeliness of surveillance data. This will be achieved through automated private-sector Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) reporting into NCDC's Surveillance Outbreak Response Management and Analysis System (SORMAS). The goal is to reduce the reporting burden on private healthcare facilities while enhancing the overall effectiveness of disease surveillance in Nigeria.
Dr. Jide Idris emphasized that effective disease surveillance and health security require meaningful engagement with the private healthcare sector. A significant proportion of the data needed to strengthen health security sits within private-sector facilities, including hospitals, laboratories, pharmacies, and patent medicine vendors. The NCDC DG noted that HFN's sustained efforts to deepen private-sector engagement have been instrumental in formalizing this collaboration.
The collaboration builds on previous work by HFN and PharmAccess to understand the challenges and opportunities around private-sector IDSR reporting. An IDSR survey conducted by HFN and PharmAccess provided valuable insights into reporting experiences within private healthcare facilities. This informed the development of practical solutions to integrate surveillance requirements into provider workflows.
Under the agreement, HFN will support engagement with private-sector healthcare providers, work with NCDC on pilot facility selection, and co-lead the design and implementation of the pilot. HFN will also support documentation of private-sector perspectives and lessons learned. PharmAccess will provide technical assistance, including expertise in interoperability, digital standards, and system architecture.
PharmAccess's Country Director, Njide Ndili, highlighted lessons from Kenya's experience with IDSR and disease surveillance. Ndili emphasized the importance of designing surveillance systems around the realities of healthcare delivery, making it easy for providers to contribute quality data. This collaboration will apply these lessons to develop an approach relevant to Nigeria's health system.
The pilot will operate within applicable data protection laws and health information governance requirements, prioritizing data security, confidentiality, and non-disclosure. The collaboration represents a step towards deeper cooperation between Nigeria's public health surveillance system and the private healthcare sector, recognizing that effective health security requires participation from all parts of the health system.
Key points
- The NCDC, HFN, and PharmAccess partnership aims to integrate private healthcare data into Nigeria's national surveillance system.
- The pilot project will test digital approaches to improve surveillance data quality, completeness, and timeliness.
- The collaboration prioritizes data security, confidentiality, and non-disclosure, operating within applicable laws and governance requirements.
