Implementing electronic health system in Nigeria: perspective assessment in a specialist hospital.

Background: Perspectives on the pioneering work of Electronic Health Recording (EHR) system in Nigeria was studied.

Objectives: To determine health workers perception, challenges, motivation and satisfaction with EHR.

Methodology: This was a descriptive cross sectional study using structured questionnaire to assess health workers perspective on EHR system at Kogi State Specialist Hospital.

Audit of completion of radiology request form in a nigerian specialist hospital.

Background: Clinical audit is one approach to improve the quality of patient care, completion of request form inclusive. Radiology request forms are essential communication tools between the clinician and the radiologist. The aim of this study is to audit the adequacy of completion of X-ray request forms.

Fish bone foreign body presenting with an acute fulminating retropharyngeal abscess in a resource-challenged center: a case report.

Introduction: A retropharyngeal abscess is a potentially life-threatening infection in the deep space of the neck, which can compromise the airway. Its management requires highly specialized care, including surgery and intensive care, to reduce mortality. This is the first case of a gas-forming abscess reported from this region, but not the first such report in the literature.

Survey of ototopical self medication among patients attending ENT and family medicine departments in a Nigerian hospital.

Background: Ototopical self-medication is a common practice in Nigeria.

Objective: The aim of the study was to establish the proportion of patients with otological problems that practice ototopical self-medication.

Methods: A 12-week cross-sectional study of all the new patients attending the general outpatient (also called family medicine (FM)) and ear, nose and throat (ENT) departments of a Nigerian specialist hospital was carried out.

The pattern of medical mortalities in a specialist hospital in north-central Nigeria.

Background: Review of causes of morbidity and mortality in health care facilities is an important exercise which gives a picture of the prevailing disease pattern in the particular community and at the same time looks out for any change in the disease pattern over time. This exercise is a necessary component for planning of the health care needs of the community.

Objective: To determine the mortality pattern on the medical wards of the Kogi State Specialist Hospital, a tertiary center located in Lokoja, North-Central Nigeria.

Informed consent in human subject research: a comparison of current international and Nigerian guidelines.

Informed consent is a basic requirement for the conduct of ethical research involving human subjects. Currently, the Helsinki Declaration of the World Medical Association and the International Ethical Guidelines for Biomedical Research of the Council for International Organizations of Medical Sciences (CIOMS) are widely accepted as international codes regulating human subject research and the informed consent sections of these documents are quite important. Debates on the applicability of these guidelines in different socio-cultural settings are ongoing and many workers have advocated the need for national or regional guidelines.

Some ethical issues in the prenatal diagnosis of sickle cell anaemia.

Sickle cell anaemia (SCA) is the most common form of haemoglobinopathy in Nigeria affecting 1-3% of the population and it is associated with physical, psychosocial and emotional suffering. Prenatal diagnosis (PND) and genetic counseling are ways of preventing the spread of the disease; however these means of prevention are associated with many ethical dilemmas. Ethical issues discussed in this paper include the safety of the procedures used in obtaining tissue sample for prenatal diagnosis, abortion of affected fetuses and the question of genetic selection.