U.S. Department of State forms tele-medicine public-private partnership to improve healthcare in Pakistan

The U.S. Department of State has formed a telemedicine public-private partnership in Pakistan, demonstrating the transformative power of high speed connectivity in improving social services in remote areas. Other partners include IBM, Wateen Telecom, Motorola, Medweb, USAID, the U.S. Department of Defense Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Center, Holy Family Hospital in Rawalpindi, District Headquarters Hospital in Attock, and the Government of Pakistan. In addition, The U.S. Embassy's involvement has been critical to the project's success.

Telemedicine enables healthcare providers to deliver high quality medical services for patients in remote locations – services that would otherwise be lacking or absent. The public-private partnership is using telemedicine to help broaden and strengthen technical capabilities supporting the "hub," Holy Family Hospital in Rawalpindi, with the "spoke" in District Attock. "Pakistan is the sixth most populous country in the world – a nation of 173 million people," said internationally recognized telemedicine expert and surgeon, Dr. Asif Zafar. "The goal of this project is to highlight technology's ability to overcome a significant healthcare imbalance – more than 75 percent of the population lives in rural areas but only 22 percent of the doctors work there."

In addition to assembling this public-private partnership, the U.S. Government contributed $220,000 to purchase state-of-the-art telemedicine equipment and services to operate the project. The equipment combines an Internet-access portal including interactive collaboration tools such as secure email, voice and video conferencing on a secure telemedicine network with advanced medical peripheral devices such as portable ultrasound, digital cameras, EKG, stethoscope and X-ray machines.

Wateen Telecom and Motorola are the first companies in the world to roll-out a cutting edge WIMAX network on a nationwide scale. WIMAX enables wireless broadband access, allowing the exchange of massive amounts of information between the District Hospital in Attock and Holy Family Hospital. The new system leverages the low-cost, ubiquitous power of the Internet to connect hub hospitals to what the team hopes will be an increasing number of spoke clinics. In addition, the system can access and engage the help of medical experts working at some of the most elite medical institutions in Pakistan and around the world.

The Pakistan telemedicine project has already provided expanded medical care to hundreds of patients – pre-operative planning and follow-up; cardiac assessment; opthamology, dermatology, radiology, infectious disease, and peri-natal evaluations; and medical triage for traumas and acute illness.

"The U.S. Department of State, through the Pakistan Telemedicine Project, is demonstrating the transformative power of telecommunications technology under the U.S. Government's Digital Freedom Initiative, which seeks to encourage the spread of technology to the developing world," said Ferial Saeed, Deputy U.S. Coordinator & Office Director for International Communications & Information Policy. "Telecommunications technology not only underpins global economic growth and development but also can be used to promote good government and good governance – from online medical and educational initiatives that deliver services and opportunity to people and places too often overlooked, to e-government programs that increase the public trust. Under this public-private partnership, we hope to demonstrate how technology and Internet-based connectivity can significantly improve the quality of life for remote populations."

The Pakistan Telemedicine Project extends the United States-Pakistan Strategic Partnership, which was formed in 2006. The broad, long-term partnership of the U.S. and Pakistani Governments reinforces the possibility of collaborative projects like this one, which has had the opportunity to transform and improve the lives of many Pakistanis. Since 2002 the United States has provided more than $3.4 billion to Pakistan to improve economic growth, education, health, and governance and to assist with earthquake reconstruction.