Nigeria’s Ndili Appointed Commissioner by Lancet

Martins Ifijeh

The Lancet and Financial Times (FT) Commission on Governing Health Futures 2030, has appointed Njide Ndili as the Commissioner for Digital Health and Artificial Intelligence.

The commission is set to run from October 2019 to December 2021 and will explore the impact of digital health, AI and other frontier technologies on Universal Health Coverage (UHC), with a special focus on improving the health of children and young people.

The commission will focus on examining integrative policies for digital health, AI and UHC that are being developed around the world, to identify which has the greatest potential to improve health outcomes and maximize health equity in resource-restricted settings, while ensuring human rights.

According to Njide, “The Commission presents a platform for knowledge exchange,aiding the improvement of healthcare access in Africa using digital technology and AI”.

“My experience in the sector has given me the privilege to contribute towards designing, testing and scaling of innovations that seek to improve access and efficiency. I am and remain passionate about this, as Mobile telephony will continue to play a crucial role in healthcare in Africa, especially for the young and underserved populations.” she said in a statement.

Ndili is the Country Director for PharmAccess Nigeria, an organization dedicated to facilitating affordable access to quality healthcare in Africa by stimulating investments in the healthcare industry through partnerships with the private sector and government institutions. PharmAccess prioritizes a digital agenda, developing innovative digital solutions to enable seamless access and improvement in health outcomes. These solutions include the HealthConnect App, which leverages international remittances for health, a quality-improvement tool, a multi-system poverty screening tool, a mobile app for TB Screening and the CarePay digital insurance platform.

Njide’s experience in healthcare spans decades in both the United States and Nigeria. She will convey her wealth of knowledge alongside other selected Commissioners to deliver a clear set of recommendations on the governance of digital health, AI and UHC.

The Commission Secretariat is housed at the Global Health Centre, Graduate Institute for International and Development Studies in Geneva. The first meeting of the Commission is scheduled to hold in Berlin from the 30th to the 31st of October 2019.