AI termed future of Pakistan's healthcare

Medical expert believes the field can greatly improve the system

KARACHI:

The healthcare industry in Pakistan is ready for some major changes, while artificial intelligence (AI) can bring significant progress in the system by simplifying the lives of patients, doctors, and hospital administrators, stressed International Center for Chemical Director and Biological Sciences, and COMSTECH Coordinator General Prof Dr M Iqbal Choudhary

"The establishment of the Center for Artificial Intelligence in Health Sciences was a need of the time, and this center is being set up under Dr. Panjwani Center for Molecular Medicine and Drug Research (PCMD), University of Karachi."

Dr Choudhary expressed these views while speaking at the one-day workshop on "Artificial Intelligence in Health Sciences" held on Monday. The event was jointly organized by Dr Panjwani Center and Sindh Innovation Research and Education Network (SIREN).

The workshop was held in the building of the LEJ. National Science Information Center, University of Karachi. Dr. Reaz Udin, associate professor at PCMD, presented the welcome address, while Prof. Dr. Ashiq Anjum from the University of Leicester, UK, delivered the keynote.

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Among others, those who talked about the advanced applications of AI in the health care domain included Prof. Dr. Imran Nisar from the Aga Khan University, Prof. Omer Rana, Dean of International School of Computer Science and Informatics, Cardiff University, UK, and Prof. Huiyu (Joe) Zhou, School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences, University of Leicester, UK.

Prof. Choudhary said, "Artificial intelligence simplifies the lives of patients, doctors, and hospital administrators by performing tasks that are typically done by humans, but in less time and at a fraction of the cost."

He said ICCBS took an important initiative to invest and train manpower in the cutting-edge discipline of artificial intelligence applications in health sciences.

This initiative is taken to modernise the current healthcare systems of the country, he said, adding that the main objective of this initiative is to acquire the indigenous capacity for the establishment of a state-of-the-art center for the capacity building and applications of AI in focused fields of health sciences, which will serve the country, and its people.

ICCBS has all the infrastructure to initiate this proposed training center of AI in health.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 21^st, 2021.