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Oracle, Proteus Begin Process to Increase Clinical Trial Accuracy

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Highly engaged patients that consistently take their prescribed medications as directed are the cornerstone of a successful clinical trial.

Researchers have long struggled to effectively and efficiently validate adherence—relying on an arduous and often inaccurate combination of self-reporting and lab tests.

To help health sciences organizations more effectively track and manage the use of medication during clinical trials, Oracle has introduced Oracle Health Sciences InForm Medication Adherence Insights Cloud Service.

This solution, Oracle said  in a statement on Monday, not only enables clinical trial sponsors to automatically capture precise and timely data about medication adherence, it can also help accelerate insight about drug efficacy and safety and speed clinical trials, which can, in turn, increase trial success rates.

Oracle Health Sciences InForm Medication Adherence Insights Cloud Service is the first clinical trial data capture and management solution to automatically integrate adherence data from the Proteus Digital Health feedback system directly into an electronic data capture system.

The platform helps researchers more accurately and efficiently track and manage the use of medication during clinical trials—a historically laborious and error-ridden process.

The new solution automates data collection and captures accurate medication ingestion information.

By providing direct and rapid validation of the quantity of medication a patient ingests and the time of ingestion, Oracle Health Sciences InForm Medication Adherence Insights Cloud Service can help health sciences organizations lower the risk of clinical trial failures by identifying medication adherence issues early, improving dosage decisions, and enhancing drug safety.

The solution also helps accelerate trials and reduce costs by eliminating imprecise, time-consuming, and expensive manual processes for collecting adherence data, such as pill counts and patient questionnaires.

This revolutionary solution resulted from Oracle’s strategic relationship with Proteus Digital Health. It combines the power of Oracle’s industry-leading clinical data capture and management system, Oracle Health Sciences InForm, with the Proteus Digital Health feedback system to create an innovative product that helps pharmaceutical developers accelerate time to market while reducing costs and improving safety.

Supporting Quotes

“Oracle Health Sciences InForm Medication Adherence Insights Cloud Service helps health sciences organizations effectively address two long-standing and complex challenges: measuring participant adherence to drug protocols and identifying the optimum dosing regimen for recommended use,” said Steve Rosenberg, senior vice president and general manager, Oracle Health Sciences.

“This groundbreaking solution—the direct result of a collaboration between Oracle and Proteus Digital Health—is a powerful example of how we can rapidly combine our industry-leading clinical trial data capture and management solutions with emerging technologies, such as digital pills, to help health sciences organizations transform the drug development and approval process.”

“The medication adherence option uniquely addresses the most critical information in a clinical trial: ‘Did the patients use their medicine properly?’ Combining this powerful new data with the technology, analysis, and capabilities of Oracle Health Sciences creates a game-changing opportunity for drug development,” said Markus Christen, head of global development, Proteus Digital Health.


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Nigeria CommunicationsWeek believes that technology makes life more exciting and helps improve the lives of people around Nigeria and indeed the world. So since 2007, we have devoted our energy to independent reportage of technology and how they affect lives.

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FG Declares Admissions outside CAPS Illegal

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Federal government has declared that any admission into tertiary institutions conducted outside the Central Admissions Processing System (CAPS), will be deemed illegal.

FG Declares Admissions outside CAPS Illegal

Dr Tunji Alausa, minister of Education, gave the directive in Abuja on Tuesday at the 2025 policy meeting of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB).

Alausa, therefore, warned universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education across the country against illegal admission.

He said institutions and individuals involved in such practices would be prosecuted and severely sanctioned.

“Any admission conducted outside CAPS, regardless of its intentions, is illegal.

“Both institutions and the candidates involved in such practices will be held accountable.

“Sanctions may include withdrawal of institutional assets and prosecution of culpable officers or governing council members,” he said.

CAPS, introduced in 2017, automates the admission process to eliminate human interference and administrative bottlenecks.

Alausa, however, reiterated the government’s commitment to strengthen transparency, fairness, and accountability in the nation’s tertiary education system.

He explained that while the responsibility for initiating admissions rests with the academic boards of each institution, JAMB, as a statutory regulatory body is mandated to oversee and regulate the process to ensure fairness and equity.

The Minister urged vice-chancellors, rectors, provosts, and governing councils to intensify oversight functions to prevent unauthorised practices.

He assured that the Ministry would monitor compliance closely in collaboration with JAMB.

The minister also reaffirmed the policy mandating integration of the National Identification Number (NIN) into the JAMB registration process.

“The NIN requirement has proven vital in safeguarding the integrity of our admission system by curbing identity fraud and multiple registrations.

“Any abuse of the NIN system will be identified and punished,” he said.

He highlighted the need for data-driven policies in the admission processes.

The Minister also presented statistics showing a mismatch between available admission quotas and actual student intake across many programmes, especially in agriculture, education, engineering, and the health sciences.

“We have capacity, but we are not admitting enough students.

“We need to start closing the gap, so that more children can access tertiary education,” he said.

He also criticised the proliferation of underutilised institutions, revealing that over 120 universities in Nigeria received fewer than 50 applications in the current admission cycle.

“The problem is not about access, it’s about alignment and capacity.

“We don’t need to open new tertiary institutions in every ward. Instead, we must expand and strengthen the capacity of existing ones,” he said.

On his part, Sen. Shuaib Salisu, chairman, Senate Committee on ICT and Cybersecurity,  called for stricter sanctions against institutions and administrators who undermine Nigeria’s admission process.

Salisu proposed the criminalisation of fraudulent admission practices.

He also warned institutions that exploit loopholes in the admissions system, allowing students to unknowingly pursue flawed admissions for years to desist from such practices.

He assured that the Senate Committee would explore legislation to criminalise such fraudulent practices, holding admission officers and institutional management accountable.

Salisu also called for an inclusive education system that drives peace and economic growth.


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BRICS Leaders Seek Inclusive Access to AI

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To support a constructive debate towards a balanced artificial intelligence (AI) approach, the BRICS leaders have agreed on a set of guidelines to foster responsible development, deployment and use of AI technologies for sustainable development and inclusive growth.

The leaders of the BRICS nations – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – published a joint statement calling for a global governance framework for AI that is inclusive, representative and rooted in the principles of sovereignty, development and ethical responsibility.

The guidelines, which strictly refer to the use of AI in the non-military domain, should be applied through either domestic or applicable international frameworks, as well as through the development of interoperable standards and protocols, in inclusive, transparent and consensus-based processes, the statement reads.

BRICS is a political and diplomatic coordination forum for countries from the Global South. This year’s theme was “Strengthening global south cooperation for more inclusive and sustainable governance”.

The BRICS leaders’ statement positions AI as a transformative force for sustainable development and innovation, while also warning against uncoordinated governance models that could deepen global inequities, marginalise developing nations and fracture multilateralism.

It emphasises that AI governance should be anchored in the United Nations system to ensure inclusivity and legitimacy.

The BRICS countries warn against a fragmented regulatory landscape, advocating for co-ordinated multilateralism that includes the voices of developing countries – particularly from the Global South.

BRICS leaders reaffirmed their support for Digital sovereignty, saying each country must retain the right to shape AI policy and technology in line with its own development goals and legal frameworks. This includes capacity-building, data governance and technological autonomy.

“We firmly support the right of all countries to harness the benefits of the digital economy… to develop capacities in AI research, foster technological autonomy and innovation, ensure data protection, and promote their own digital economy,” the statement reads.

A major theme in the document is the need for fair, equitable and inclusive access to AI technologies. The BRICS leaders stress that all countries – regardless of economic standing – must be able to access and benefit from AI.

The group also called for global co-operation in building data governance frameworks that allow developing countries secure and equitable access to data, with full respect for privacy, intellectual property rights and national laws. This ties into support for open science, open innovation and open-source AI models that can fuel local innovation ecosystems.

On intellectual property, the statement advocates for a balance between proprietary rights and public interest to prevent exploitative data practices and ensure transparency in AI model development and deployment.

The BRICS countries voiced concern over algorithmic bias and the exclusion of underrepresented cultures and languages in AI datasets and models.

They called for ethical, transparent and accountable AI development that reflects cultural, demographic and linguistic diversity.

They also endorsed UNESCO’s Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence and called for international co-operation to develop inclusive datasets, tools to flag misinformation and mechanisms to mitigate bias – especially against vulnerable groups like women, children, the elderly and people with disabilities.

The BRICS nations stressed the importance of using AI as a tool for sustainable development, citing sectors such as healthcare, agriculture, education, energy and environmental conservation as priority areas.

They urged that AI development must be environmentally responsible, minimising carbon emissions and e-waste.

The potential of AI to enhance productivity and job creation was also recognised, as well as the risks of job displacement and exploitation. The statement calls for policies that safeguard worker rights, ensure compatibility between AI and human capabilities, and promote decent work in the digital economy.

“It is imperative to safeguard the rights and wellbeing of all workers, particularly those directly affected by the digital transformation… including generative AI,” the statement says.

The BRICS statement ends with a commitment to intensify co-ordination on AI governance and share the guidelines across international platforms. It extends an open invitation to other developing countries to contribute to and refine the emerging global framework for AI.

“We welcome contributions to further develop these guidelines, particularly from other developing countries, and will remain open to revisiting them.”


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Tech-driven Solutions Receive Commendation @ Maiden Insurance Week Hackathon

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Mrs Yetunde Ilori, President of the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN), has commended the innovative and technology-driven solutions presented during the institute’s maiden Insurance Week Hackathon competition.

Ilori gave the commendation after the completion of the competition on Thursday in Lagos, held at the College of Insurance and Financial Management in Asese, Ogun, as part of the Insurance Week organised by the CIIN.

She described the solutions as crucial to the industry’s transformation and relevance in the digital age. “This shows that the future is bright for the Nigerian insurance industry.

We are transforming as an industry, and digital innovation is at the heart of that transformation,” Ilori said. She noted that 19 teams initially applied for the competition, but only six were shortlisted.

The competition, which targeted young Nigerians between the ages of 18 and 29, engaged six finalist teams over a fourweek intensive innovation process, culminating in a demo day on Wednesday in Lagos.

The hackathon focused on real-world challenges in the sector, such as inclusive insurance, fraud detection, risk management, and improving customer experience.

It was designed to cultivate the next generation of insurance innovators, deepen insurance awareness, and promote financial literacy among Nigerians.

The teams that participated in the final stage of the competition were: Ifokanbale, Insurbridge, Insurvate, Team Aegis, Team Phoenix, and The Assured Team. Team Aegis developed “Hustle Guard,” a microinsurance solution for tricycle drivers covering health, life, and income, in an effort to demystify micro insurance in Nigeria.

The Assured Team presented “Kolo Plus by Card,” an unstructured savings plan with payment and interest features tailored to low-income earners. Team Insurbridge created “Smarter Claims,” a solution aimed at improving the insurance claims process.

Team Phoenix introduced “HerShield,” a solution focused on empowering women and building trust in the insurance sector. The Assured Team also developed additional ideas to drive insurance penetration in underserved and informal communities.

After an engaging pitch session before a panel of judges, Team Insurvate emerged as the overall winner with its solution, “Claim Central”, an end-to-end digital platform designed to streamline the insurance claims process from policyholders to insurers.

Team Aegis secured second place, while Team Phoenix came in third. The panel of judges included financial sector experts such as Norah Igwe, Tunji Andrews, Diana Mulili, Sakeenat Bakare, Ibraheem Babalola, and Prince Adeshina Adeyemi-Doro.

Also speaking, Mr Eddie Efekoha, Chairman of the Insurance Week, said the hackathon demonstrated a conscious effort to explore how technology can help distribute insurance products to all parts of the country.

“We believe this initiative will spark more interest among the youth to engage with insurance, not just as consumers but as creators and innovators,” he said.

Speaking on behalf of the winning team, Mr Odunayo Ojeremi, leader of Team Insurvate, described the competition as highly competitive and rewarding. “We are excited and grateful for the opportunity.

“We didn’t expect to win, but we are glad our solution was recognised. We hope to improve ‘Claim Central’ and make it a platform that ensures seamless claims processing,” he said.


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