KARACHI: Highlighting how use of technology has revolutionised healthcare in other parts of the world, speakers at a conference on Thursday emphasised need for setting up a digitised integrated healthcare system and embracing technological innovations to improve patient services, boost hospital and administrative productivity and tackle emerging challenges.

The conference, Health Tech Summit, was hosted by the Aga Khan University (AKU) in partnership with AIMS Consulting.

Caretaker Chief Minister retired Justice Maqbool Baqar, Health Minister Dr Saad Khalid Niaz, AKU president Sulaiman Shahabuddin, AKU Provost Dr Carl Amrhein and Dr Khan M. Siddiqui, co-founder and CEO of HOPPR, an AI company, and others were present.

The event brought experts from the academia, healthcare and tech industries together on a platform, who shared their insights, experiences, and recommendations for an integrated future of health and technology sectors.

Speaking on the occasion, Justice Baqar stated that the health sector was one of the most challenging sectors, particularly in a developing country like Pakistan, where several issues impacted the well-being and health of the poor masses.

“Given the growing challenges, conventional methods cannot be relied on alone and it’s important that we embrace innovation and adopt new technologies that can help us deliver better health services to our people in this era of rapid technological advancement,” he said.

He expressed hope that the AKU summit would help foster partnerships, and create synergies among all the stakeholders.

The chief minister shared that the government had given top priority to the health sector and that the provincial health department had doubled its grant in aid to the public and private health institutions over the past five years whereas its development portfolio had increased by around 70 per cent.

“We have taken several initiatives to improve the health sector in the province, such as enhancing the capacity and quality of public hospitals and clinics and strengthening the primary and secondary healthcare system,” he said.

The health department had also launched an independent monitoring system covering all primary facilities and secondary hospitals in Sindh, he added.

In his remarks during a panel discussion, interim Health Minister Dr Saad Niaz spoke about the need for making the health system digitised to improve work efficiency and reduce hospital costs.

Facts-based data, he pointed out, played an important role in improving any system. “Unfortunately, however, the data being provided to us in Karachi isn’t reliable (hampering critical decision making),” he said.

Highlighting other challenges, the health minister said the government-run hospitals currently faced an acute shortage of trained human resource, seriously affecting quality of care and service.

He explained that the problem pertaining to the shortage of human resource couldn’t be addressed in present circumstances since there was a ban on new appointments by the Election Commission of Pakistan.

“Besides, hospitals lack computers, internet services and technical staff,” the health minister shared.

The summit featured panel discussions on promoting healthy lifestyle and healthcare opportunities and risks created by emerging technologies.

Published in Dawn, December 8th, 2023