UKu | Computing Centre | Research & Development	9.1.1998
	Mikko Korpela

Ife Project

The Ife Project is a Joint Project on Health Informatics Research and Development in Nigeria. The project was formally started in December 1989, after initial contacts since 1987.

The project partners jointly produced a rudimentary Hospital Information System in 1989, using the public domain Admission-Discharge-Transfer package of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (then Veterans Administration, VA) as a basis. The system has been in operation in one of the hospital units of the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospitals since January 1991 and in the other hospital unit since January 1995. The system is based on the VA's FileMan database and Kernel tools, implemented in the M Technology (previously called MUMPS language). The software technology is the same as in the MUSTI Hospital Information System in Finland.

The software technology is highly cost-effective, making it possible to run a multiuser system on a standard "Personal Computer" (DOS/Windows), a LAN-based client/server system, or a Unix-based system. One of the OAUTHC systems runs on a Pentium PC with three terminals, the other one on a stand-alone PS/2. The software package has the following functionality:

• Data entry: Patient registration, inpatient admissions, inter-ward transfers and discharges, adapted to Nigerian tertiary hospitals' standard requirements.
• Statistical reports: Daily Bed State Report, monthly and annual Morbidity and Mortality Statistics according to the ICD-9 code in the Federal Ministry of Health's official format (on paper or diskette, for one hospital unit or the whole complex).
• Clinical feedback reports: Inquiry of a patient's medical history (on display or paper). List of discharges and outcomes of care according to attending consultant. List of patients on ward. List of admissions, discharges and transfers according to ward.
• Ad-hoc report generation facilities using FileMan, eg. for clinical research purposes.
• Electronic mail, local and networked (using SMTP protocol over dial-up lines or tcp/ip).
• Fourth-generation system development facilities using FileMan and Kernel.

After a few years' experience, the Joint Project Committee concluded that for increased clinical benefits, the system must be expanded in two directions:

• Within the hospitals, all major clinical areas must be included. The first priority is on outpatient information (appointment scheduling and diagnoses), laboratory test results, and pharmacy (drug information service, drug inventory control, medication). VA's public domain applications will be used as prototypes, when appropriate.
• The hospitals are to be used as resource centres for Primary Health Care (PHC) management on the Local Goverment level. This includes information processing and feedback to local communities, eg. by using Geographic Information System technology.

The Nigeria National Health Plan of 1996 aims at the majority of the over twenty teaching and specialist hospitals having a computer-based Hospital Information System by the year 2001. The National Health Strategy and Policy of 1988 and 1996 is based on the PHC principle and aims at developing a national health information system. In 1998-2000 the Ife Project will produce software packages and health informatics expertise to support these objectives.

The OAUTHC employed two computer professionals in 1995, and the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, OAU, established a Health Informatics Group in 1996. The latter now comprises about ten staff and graduate assistants. The University of Kuopio recruited two doctoral students in 1997 for methodological research. Presently the main research emphasis is on the INDEHELA-M(ethods) project, which is part of a larger African-European consortium.

The Ife Project has produced several scientific and professional publications. The OAUTHC system was the first hospital information system from Sub-Saharan Africa, excluding South Africa, reported in an international scientific conference (MEDINFO'92), and the first one submitted to a longitudinal assessment (MEDINFO'98, submitted). An innovative tripartite planning workshop - involving computer professionals, health providers and community representatives - was reported in the Participatory Design Conference 1996. The project partners proposed to the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) in 1991 that an African conference on health informatics be organised, and the IMIA charged them with organising the first HELINA conference in 1993. The project partners have been involved in Health Informatics in Africa, including the HELINA-L mailing list, ever since. The OAU Health Informatics Group is the largest research group on health informatics in Sub-Saharan Africa excluding South Africa.

Participants and contact addresses

• Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Nigeria
  • Prof. A.D. Akinde <aakinde@oauife.edu.ng>, Head of Department
  • Mrs. H.A. Soriyan <hsoriyan@oauife.edu.ng>, Convener of the Health Informatics Group
• Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospitals Complex, Ile-Ife, Nigeria
  • Dr. D.O. Akinola <hospital@oauthc.oauife.edu.ng>, Ag. Chief Medical Director
  • Prof. O. Adejuyigbe, Coordinator of the Hospital Information System Project
• Computing Centre, University of Kuopio, Finland
  • Dr. Mikko Korpela <mikko.korpela@uku.fi>, Coordinator of the INDEHELA-Methods Project

Publications

List of scientific publications and working papers produced in the project. See also the list of publications of the INDEHELA-M project.

Photo album

A collection of pictures about the institutions, people, products and events of the Ife Project. See also the photo album of the HELINA'93 conference.