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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