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Internet and mobile phones are playing a saviour's role to allow every Pakistani to have basic access to healthcare in the country

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 percent 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 1,200 patients, there is only one doctor available. According to the World Health Organisation, one out of three women don't see a doctor in their pregnancy, while one child out of every five children does not get to see their fifth birthday owing to insufficient healthcare workers.

In recent years, especially with the increase in the 3G/4G penetration rate, the IT and Telecom sector has shown an astonishing growth. 3G/4G services have made it easy to collect the patients' real-time data and transmit them to a database shared by doctors with the fast internet. The 3G-enabled handsets provide a videoconferencing facility or a means of transferring imaging data (e.g. X-ray).

The mobile operators in Pakistan are collectively driving the country towards the digital world. They have also provided m-health facilities to its users in rural areas too. Jazz, for instance, has done some commendable work in m-health by developing its Healthpass application to improve health outflow management.

The extension of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has set up an exceptional opportunity for the delivery of healthcare facilities and infrastructure to resolve problems of accessibility and timely health care service provision.

Digital health is permitting people to better track, manage, and improve overall health, live better and more productive lives. It is also helping to reduce inadequacies in healthcare delivery, improve access, reduce costs, increase quality, and make health services more accessible and effective. The following are some of the advantages brought by technology to Pakistanis.

Accessibility to information
The availability of good health services within reasonable reach of those who need them has become easy for people because of the progression in IT. People who feel hesitant in discussing some of their issues can get information on their phones by staying at home. The Internet put a great effort in getting the medical information quickly, conveniently, and privately.

Remote checkups
Advancement in the IT world has made it easy to remotely connect to a doctor anytime and anywhere. Today, mobile phones have become an essential part of our life; now people neither need to carry their medical records nor to visit the doctor physically. they can now contact their doctor anytime they want, share their medical records and get medical advice accordingly.

Health applications
With the advent of new innovations in the e-health, there are a variety of apps available for Personal health records, chronic care management, medication management, diagnostics, Fitness, Women's health, and weight-loss, etc. These health apps provide more flexibility to doctors, administrators, and patients. They can help to promote better health awareness.

Prevention before treatment
Digital health technologies aid patients to self-manage their health conditions by monitoring and tracking the symptoms regularly. It acts as a tool for the early detection of significant changes to disease progression in a patient. Digital health platforms are important, especially for respiratory disease patients and for the patient whose life is at risk.

Lower cost of treatment
Digitisation of the health sector allows the patients to remotely connect to a doctor and makes the treatment more cost-effective. As people do not need to travel and hence lowering the cost of travelling.

Due to the unlimited benefits of technology in health sectors, the government is putting a lot of focus on merging its health sector with technology to improve the overall state of health in the country. The Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination (NHSRC) have set out an Action Plan 2019-2023 to transform the health sector of Pakistan by addressing the challenges, health sector reforms, and thus improving the health results of people of Pakistan. This action plan will expand current health sectoral and sub-sectoral strategies in the country and will help in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), International Health Regulations (IHR) and Universal Health Coverage (UHC) goals in the country.

The government should now take appropriate actions while making the health sector more digital through the partnership between health and ICT sectors. As the popularity and penetration of mHealth apps with advancing technologies like Blockchain, AR, IoT are progressively growing and improving the healthcare ecosystem on a regular basis. Additionally, the Government of Pakistan should run gender-based awareness programmes to let people think about the importance of their health. Also, the government should urge health care professionals to use innovative technologies and mechanisms to improve a patient's experience. To improve the health sector, government should make policies that will promote technology and contribute to the social and economic development of the country.

- Source: Microsoft and Phoneworld

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