Nigerian health strategist launches app to combat silent chronic disease crisis

A Nigerian-born digital health strategist and innovator, Anina Agboola, has launched a new mobile application aimed at addressing some of the world’s deadliest yet overlooked diseases.

The app, called Roots, is designed to help individuals monitor their own health risks and take proactive steps to prevent illnesses such as heart disease, diabetes, and hypertension—conditions that together account for more than 70 percent of global deaths.

According to a statement issued over the weekend, Ms Agboola’s mission is to change the traditional reactive approach to healthcare by focusing on prevention and early detection.

At the heart of this effort is Roots, a personal health platform that delivers real-time risk assessments.

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Drawing on vital signs, lifestyle behaviours, symptoms, and family history, Roots provides users with an intuitive health score modeled after financial credit scoring.

It is believed that for populations with limited access to regular medical care, this kind of tool could prove life-saving.

The urgency of this intervention cannot be overstated. In urban centres across Nigeria and beyond, cases of sudden death—often linked to undiagnosed chronic illness—are on the rise.

Babafemi Ojudu, journalist and former member of Nigeria’s National Assembly, recently called for greater attention to self-care after age 45.

Mr Ojudu warned that many such deaths are dismissed as mystical or unexplained, when in fact they are largely preventable.

Recent tragedies highlight the scale of the problem. Retired Customs officer Kunle Akinyele collapsed during his wife’s 60th birthday thanksgiving service.

Broadcaster Bukola Agbakaizu died suddenly at her desk. And on 2 June, Deputy Commissioner of Police Guri collapsed and died in his Abuja office.

Such incidents reveal a painful truth: chronic diseases often progress silently until a catastrophic event occurs.

This is precisely the gap Ms Agboola says she hopes to address. “Imagine planning your daughter’s wedding, only to collapse from a stroke or silent illness without warning,” she noted. “That’s exactly the crisis I set out to address with Roots—giving people the power to track their health and catch problems early.”

Aside from early detection, the new app also hopes to offer more than personal insights.

The app integrates artificial intelligence to analyse symptom patterns and provide personalised behavioural nudges.

It also offers educational content aligned with public health best practices.

As indicated, future versions of Roots will include caregiver support tools, emergency alerts, and features designed to support broader disease forecasting at the population level.

“Preventable chronic diseases are robbing us of productivity, well-being, and equity,” Ms Agboola explains. “But we keep throwing fragmented solutions at systemic problems. I built Roots to be both deeply personal and scalable. It’s about prevention—not just awareness.”

Ms Agboola’s vision extends well beyond the app itself as she is also the author of The Chronic Care Blueprint, an upcoming book that lays out a comprehensive roadmap for moving healthcare systems from reactive treatment to proactive wellness.

Combining data, storytelling, and systems thinking, the upcoming book is expected to serve as both a personal reflection and a public call to action.

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“Health inequities are often rooted in delayed detection and fragmented care,” she says. “But if we can give people tools to understand their own risk early, we can change outcomes — and costs — at scale.”

In a world where chronic disease is the true pandemic confronting modern health systems, interventions outside of hospital wards—but in the devices we carry in our hands—may become the new game changer.