Title: National Hospital Management Portal (NHMP): a framework for e-health implementation

Authors: E. Adetiba, M. Eleanya, S.A. Fatumo, V.O. Matthews, O.J. Iruemi

Addresses: Department of Electrical & Information Engineering, College of Science and Technology, School of Engineering, Covenant University, Ota, Nigeria. ' Chevron, 2, Chevron Drive, Lekki Peninsula, Lagos, Nigeria. ' Department of Computer and Information Sciences, College of Science and Technology, School of Natural Sciences, Covenant University, Ota, Nigeria. ' Department of Electrical & Information Engineering, College of Science and Technology, School of Engineering, Covenant University, Ota, Nigeria. ' Department of Electrical & Information Engineering, College of Science and Technology, School of Engineering, Covenant University, Ota, Nigeria

Abstract: Health information represents the main basis for health decision-making process and there have been some efforts to increase access to health information in developing countries. However, most of these efforts are based on the internet which has minimal penetration especially in the rural and sub-urban part of developing countries. In this work, a platform for medical record acquisition via the ubiquitous 2.5G/3G wireless communications technologies is presented. The National Hospital Management Portal (NHMP) platform has a central database at each specific country|s national hospital which could be updated/accessed from hosts at health centres, clinics, medical laboratories, teaching hospitals, private hospitals and specialist hospitals across the country. With this, doctors can have access to patients| medical records more easily, get immediate access to test results from laboratories, deliver prescription directly to pharmacists. If a particular treatment can be provided to a patient more effectively in another country, NHMP makes it simpler to organise and carry out such treatment abroad.

Keywords: NHMP; national hospital management portal; GPRS-CDMA; HLAN; hospital LANs; local area networks; WHLAN; wireless hospital LANs; HWAN; wireless LANs; medical errors; server; client; electronic healthcare; e-healthcare; developing countries; medical record acquisition; electronic medical records; patient records.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEH.2010.034176

International Journal of Electronic Healthcare, 2010 Vol.5 No.3, pp.273 - 283

Published online: 16 Jul 2010 *

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