Health Metrics and Artificial Intelligence Unit

The unit staff members are comprised of computer and data scientists who undertake “BIG DATA” activities through linkage of data from across several data sources and formats including public health records, medical records, administrative data, and data from social media streams. The current EMR (Electronic Medical Record) being utilized at the Centre’s hospital was designed and implemented by the unit. The Centre’s EMR is currently one of the digital systems being considered by the Federal Ministry of Health for adoption by federal health facilities as well as for public health surveillance and disease tracking nationwide. The EMR integrates clinical, laboratory, and epidemiologic data into a single system, and is currently being strengthened with an artificial intelligence pipeline to scale up its capability and utility across various users. The unit is partnering with the University of Health Sciences in Houston, Texas (USA) to establish a training center in Kano to build capacity in Nigeria in healthcare artificial intelligence (HAI).