With the advent of the Internet as the catalyst of modern knowledge economies, and mobile usage growing at unprecedented rates, all industries, including that of health care, are poised to benefit from the instant access to data facilitated by the new technologies that are driving digital transformation across communities, organisations and entire economies.
According to the International Journal of Advanced Research and Publications, Pakistan has had a precarious healthcare delivery system. Although the government has formulated policy geared towards improving the health of all citizens, particularly women and children, through affordable universal access to quality healthcare services, the system continues to be confronted with problems of scarcity of resources, inequity and gender insensitivity.
Characteristic of developing nations, the problems Pakistan faces are interconnected. In this instance, the gender inequalities that exist in the country exacerbates the adequate and appropriate healthcare service delivery to the most marginalised. To mitigate this, the movement to empower Pakistani women has placed a focus on tackling issues of health and education through initiatives like teaching women in villages about hygiene and nutrition, creating opportunities for girls to go to school and further their education in institutions of higher learning and enabling women to become financially independent irrespective of their marital status.
Pakistan, nonetheless, faces two major issues: On the one hand, it has been said that more than 29.5% of Pakistan’s population is living below the poverty line, having limited or no access at all to quality primary care facilities. Furthermore, there are not enough healthcare workers to service the growing population of Pakistan; for every 1200 patients, there is only 1 doctor available. According to the World Health Organisation, 1 out of 3 women don’t see a doctor in their pregnancy, while 1 child out of every 5 children does not get to see their fifth birthday owing to insufficient healthcare workers.
Unlike many developing countries though, Pakistan sees thousands of students graduate from medical schools every year with the majority being females. A vast majority of these graduates, however, are not registered as practicing physicians. The remaining either emigrate or stop practicing and leave their careers midway due to sociocultural norms and household responsibilities, becoming “doctor brides”.
In response to this unique phenomenon, a couple of Pakistani female doctors have come together to form an organisation called Sehat Kahani (Story of health) Community Innovation Hub. Dr. Iffat Zafar & Dr. Sara Khurram saw a need within their society and recognised the potential of merging their skills as medical doctors with technology to bring impactful change in underserviced communities. Sehat Kahani operates mainly on their Telehealth platform and recruits “doctor brides” to work remotely from home using digital technology to facilitate healthcare services and consultation with patients.
In alignment with Microsoft’s mission to empower every individual and organisation to achieve more through purpose driven innovation, Sehat Kahani uses Microsoft’s Azure Cloud platform to store patient information and analyse demographic data. “Microsoft cloud and artificial intelligence play a crucial role in comparing healthcare demographics,” says Dr. Iffat Zafar, co-founder of Sehat Kahani.
“Very early on in our journey, we met the team at Microsoft Middle East and Africa when Sehat Kahani was a very small startup. They saw and believed in our vision at that time. If I talk about the credit hours we got from Azure, and how Microsoft has facilitated us, I think that has entirely changed how the journey of the patient has evolved over time, “continues Dr. Zafar. A patient can now walk into a clinic and her medical history will be taken and stored in a centralised cloud database. If she decides to go to any other healthcare facility, she will be able to access her medical records through her smartphone, and the data remains securely stored on the cloud.
Sehat Kahani also partners with clinics run by nurses in marginalised communities and upgrades them into telehealth clinics where they train the nurses for medical, pharmaceutical and telemedicine protocols. “This support we are getting from Microsoft can change the entire healthcare ecosystem, how data is being stored, analysed and how treatment plans are eventually going to be built – ultimately, revolutionary to our communities,” adds Dr. Zafar.
Since its inception, Sehat Kahani has 1 500 registered female doctors and 100 community staff employed at 25 e-health clinics across the country. “It certainly is exciting progress, and we are eager to witness how this continues to expand and scale in the years to come,” concludes Zafar.
