Good data, application necessary for better health index

A medical expert, Professor Olufunmilayo Fawole has stated that good health data collection and its application are pivotal to imparting and improving the health of Nigerians despite the ongoing economic recession.

Professor Fawole in the 2016/2017 inaugural lecture of the University of Ibadan, entitled “The 5Ws: The Epidemiologist’s Quest” stated that Nigeria can prevent and curtail many diseases better if it could qualify them.

The expert, who declared that eradication or elimination of many diseases was still done by guess work, declared that such a  data need to be harnessed well enough for it to be able to impart and improve the country’s health.

She declared “we can prevent and control many diseases if we quantify them. Right now, we are just doing guess work with many of the diseases we are trying to eradicate.

“When we have data on the groups of people affected and where the diseases are occurring, then we will be able to direct our control measures. The control strategies will be more targeted and not just be all over the place. We will not be wasting resources.”

Professor Fawole suggested that priority be given to improving data collection and analysis, especially on diseases that cause outbreaks, endemic diseases as well as those preventable by vaccination.

In ensuring better studies of disease frequency and patterns at the university, she called for the promotion of interdisciplinary research and collaboration across different sectors, saying such was more likely to obtain funding and acceptance by high impact journals.

The don emphasised on training more epidemiologists for the country to enhance qualification of diseases and public health events like migrant health and kidnapping as well as more community based studies/ projects and implementation research to improve public health.

According to her, “more community based studies/ projects and implementation research are required to improve public health. Community oriented projects have the advantage of improving the health of large number of persons and quickly too.”