Abstract
Electronic Health Records (EHR) and Electronic Medical Records (EMR) are pivotal in modernising healthcare delivery in Nigeria, enhancing patient data accessibility, care continuity, and evidence based clinical decision making. However, systemic challenges including insufficient data privacy safeguards, inconsistent adherence to regulatory frameworks, and limited patient trust threaten their effectiveness and long-term adoption. This study investigates the relationships among data privacy, regulatory compliance under the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation (NDPR), and patient trust within EHR/EMR platforms. Leveraging socio-technical theory and trust-based frameworks, a conceptual model was developed and tested using a cross-sectional survey of 372 healthcare providers and users. Reliability and validity were confirmed with Cronbach's α and composite reliability above Issue 2/2026 279 0.80 and AVE between 0.64 and 0.71. Structural equation modeling results reveal that data privacy positively affects patient trust (β = 0.36, p < 0.001) and regulatory compliance (β = 0.52, p < 0.001), with compliance significantly enhancing trust (β = 0.41, p < 0.001). Mediation analysis demonstrates that regulatory compliance partially mediates the privacy to trust relationship, accounting for 38 percent of the total effect. Findings highlight that robust privacy by design practices, aligned compliance, staff training, and user-centered system design are critical to building patient confidence and supporting sustainable digital health adoption in Nigeria.