Nigeria moves towards predictive healthcare with ‘digital twin’ patient model
Nigeria’s healthcare system may be set for a major shift as health technology experts advocate the adoption of a “Digital Twin” model to move medical care from reaction to prevention.
CHECK OUT: How to Start Earning with Copywriting in Just 7 Days – Even if You’re a Complete Beginner
In an article titled The “Digital Twin” of the Nigerian Patient: Moving Medicine from Hindsight to Foresight, healthcare technology advocate Oliver van Veen said Nigeria must move beyond paper-based medical records, which he described as outdated and incapable of supporting modern healthcare delivery.
Source: Twitter
According to van Veen, traditional paper files only record past illnesses and offer no ability to detect trends or predict future health risks. He noted that this has encouraged a culture of “sick care”, where treatment begins only after symptoms become severe.
Digital twin goes beyond electronic health records
Van Veen explained that a Digital Twin is more than an electronic health record. Rather than serving as a digital filing cabinet, the system creates a dynamic and continuously updated virtual profile of a patient.
He said the model integrates medical history, laboratory results, scans and even real-time data from wearable devices, turning a static snapshot into a living stream of health information.
“The idea is to understand how a patient’s condition evolves over time, not just what happened in the past,” he said.
Fragmented care puts patients at risk
The article highlighted the challenge of fragmented healthcare in Nigeria, where patients often see different doctors, specialists and pharmacies without shared medical information.
Van Veen warned that this lack of coordination increases the risk of dangerous drug interactions, repeated tests and missed diagnoses, as each provider sees only part of the patient’s health picture.
He said a unified electronic health record would ensure that patient data follows the individual, not the hospital.
Local data key to safe medical innovation
Van Veen also raised concerns about the growing use of artificial intelligence in healthcare, noting that most global medical AI systems are trained using data from Western populations.
He cautioned that relying on such tools in Nigeria could lead to inaccurate diagnoses, as diseases may present differently in African populations.
“Local data is essential if we want safe and effective medical innovation,” he said, adding that Digital Twins built from Nigerian health data would support the development of locally trained medical AI.
Predictive healthcare offers long-term benefits
Looking ahead, van Veen said the Digital Twin model could allow doctors to identify health risks months before emergencies occur, shifting care from crisis response to prevention.
Instead of recording illness after it happens, he said predictive systems could prompt early lifestyle changes and medical intervention.
He acknowledged that achieving this vision would require major investment in power supply, connectivity and healthcare software, but said the long-term payoff would be a healthier population and a more efficient healthcare system.
Source: Legit.ng
