How remote monitoring is reshaping Karachi's health care

DW (English)

In Pakistan, waiting times at hospitals and clinics are long. Some health tech providers are turning to digital tools to close the gap between patients and doctors, providing care for patients remotely.

Transcript

00:00In Pakistan, seeing a doctor often means long waits and crowded clinics.

00:05When you're taking time off work and you have to spend money to go there,

00:09that's a lot of time and money being spent.

00:12And often when you actually get to the doctor or the hospital,

00:15you might have to spend another two, three hours.

00:17Pakistani health tech companies are now offering digital services to help improve care.

00:22The startup FitWell offers medical devices, software and virtual clinics

00:27for remote patient monitoring or RPM.

00:32Patients can then check their vitals like blood pressure or glucose levels at home

00:37using digital devices like smart watches, glucometers and blood pressure monitors.

00:43The data goes straight to a doctor through a secure portal.

00:47But checking levels unsupervised has its limits.

00:50Accuracy can vary. The readings aren't always correct.

00:55Sometimes when the information is wrong, especially when you do blood pressure,

00:59you might have had a coffee or something might have happened,

01:02which pushes up the blood pressure.

01:04But the patient didn't know that.

01:07That's where virtual clinics come in.

01:10Here, trained staff help patients take accurate measurements.

01:15Doctors monitor patients via the platform and online calls.

01:21In underserved, especially minority communities, these clinics are making a big difference.

01:30When you have blood pressure issues or a headache, we come to this virtual clinic.

01:36We can access the doctor via video call and can get medicine here.

01:40It brings us relief from our pain.

01:42After the initial in-person visit, follow-ups happen online.

01:46Schools also use the virtual clinics to track student health.

01:50AI supports the system.

01:53So every single transaction that our doctor does, our AI is supervising it.

01:58So it can flag up things that might not seem right,

02:01and then somebody has to look at it and see was AI right or was AI wrong.

02:08AI won't replace doctors, but help them work faster and smarter.

02:13It can transcribe doctor-patient conversations and manage lab results and prescriptions.

02:19Patients can access test results privately via their online profile,

02:23where an AI chatbot is available for questions around the clock.

02:27Data on the platform is heavily encrypted,

02:30and access via multi-factor authentication keeps patients secure.

02:34Online medical care now spans country-wide, from cities to small towns and villages,

02:41with over a million people in Pakistan making use of the platform.

02:45But in a country of 220 million, there's still a long way to go.

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