Changing outcomes for mothers and babies in Nigeria: In conversation with two local healthcare champions

A neonatal telehealth consult at Barau Dikko Teaching Hospital

Although Nigeria faces some of the world’s highest rates of maternal and under-five mortality, World Telehealth Initiative (WTI)’s partnership with Barau Dikko Teaching Hospital is showing what’s possible with technology and global collaboration. We had a moment to sit down with Dr. Ramatu Zubair-Aliyu, a dedicated Pediatrician, and Yohanna Zachariah, passionate Telehealth Coordinator at Barau Dikko Teaching Hospital.

Neonatal resuscitation hands on training led by Dr. Ebi

When asked about the program’s impact, Dr. Ramatu shared: “My experience with the telehealth service has been an amazing one…It gave me and my colleagues the opportunity of meeting with international healthcare providers. It has also helped us in building capacity…the healthcare providers are few on ground. Although we have pediatricians, we are devoid of sub-specialists. The association with telehealth has made that possible to provide that subspecialty care to our patients. And of course, it has also improved healthcare delivery… All sessions have been amazing, wonderful, because WTI was very careful in selecting the international specialist doctors… One that stood out was the session we had on neonatal resuscitation that was headed by Dr Ebi. We had so many people attend the session, from family medicine, from OB/GYN, nurses… She took us through hands on training: on neonatal resuscitation, how to identify problems, intubation using a mannequin… We even plan on having regular sessions on neonatal resuscitation so that everybody will be able to resuscitate adequately.”

Another impactful session praised by Dr. Ramatu: “We've reviewed so many cases with the doctors, but mostly we review neonatal cases because that's where we have a lot of gaps—prematurity, severe asphyxia, neonatal sepsis…The problem we usually have with management of prematurity is them gaining weight, the problem of how to feed, what to give, and who belongs in the hospital. There was this session we had with Dr. Miheret from US. We got to discuss the care of a preterm baby that was not gaining weight. She gave us an idea that we could actually combine artificial milk with the breast milk, and she gave us the formula and the ratio of combining that. We tried it on that baby, the baby gained weight and the baby was discharged. Subsequently we've been using that same formula on our preterm babies and we are getting remarkable results.”

Yohanna added, “The session that was led by Dr. Rick Alexander was wonderful…the topic was the modern way of handling endometriosis. One of the doctors wanted Dr. Rick to tell him how doctors in America achieve success, because they find it difficult here when a woman is having endometriosis problems…. We are comparing knowledge and development—what we are doing here in Nigeria, and what doctors are also doing in other parts of the world…and we brainstorm together… Both sides benefit as a result of this program… We are getting the results, we are gaining knowledge, and we are getting a good health outcome. We will continue with this collaboration and I'm sure we are going to improve on our healthcare system.”

Looking forward, Dr. Ramatu remarked, “The telemedicine program initially started with the Pediatrics department. Gradually the OB/GYN was incorporated. So in the future we hope that all the departments will also key in... We see more collaboration in terms of surgeries where specialists come in, beaming into a surgical theatre and assists in operations. We also want to see other aspects of medicine carried along, like diagnostic medicine, ultrasonography, CT scan and echocardiography being done in collaboration with international specialists...”

Furthermore, “WTI can play a very good role in bridging the health financing gaps….What happens to those that have no finances to source for specialist care? I think that's where WTI comes in. It can bridge that gap, and it can also help in capacity building and reduce the cost of the healthcare services.”

Telehealth lecture at Barau Dikko Teaching Hospital

Yohanna Zachariah’s vision: “Every day, our healthcare workers are leaving and our population is growing. So, the patients to doctors ratio will continue to widen. This collaboration is going to help to bridge the gap…I want to see this telemedicine reaching out to hard-to-reach areas… By the time we continue to expand this program… the impact will be more, because these are people that don't have access to quality healthcare...”

Thank you to Dr. Ramatu and Yohanna for your dedication to expanding healthcare access in Nigeria!