RiDokita: A viable electronic visit system for remote medical consultation in Nigeria

Abstract

One of the major barriers to healthy lives and social well-being is the lack of access to quality healthcare delivery. Several individuals and communities around the world are facing challenges accessing quality healthcare services. Some of the challenges include inadequate infrastructure, shortage of healthcare professionals, financial constraints, and the effect of COVID-19 lockdown recently. Telemedicine is a trending technology that has been revolutionizing the application of Information and communication Technology to healthcare delivery. Meanwhile, Electronic visit (E-visit) is a component of telemedicine with the potential of expanding the scope of healthcare access and cost reductions. This work leverages on the capability of internet and other enabling technologies to design and implement an E-visit platform to provide an efficient and accessible remote medical consultation services. The developed E-visit platform is termed as “RiDokita”. The study begins with a comprehensive review of existing healthcare delivery systems, highlighting their features, drawbacks, legal and privacy practices. A Waterfall model was adopted for the development of the system, while the results of the user testing and evaluation processes show the ability and viability of the designed platform to deliver remote medical consultation services effectively. The study also provided some useful recommendations for the improvement and deployment of the system for healthcare delivery services in Nigeria.