ISLAMABAD: Renowned digital health innovator and co-founder of doctHERs — an integrated digital health care platform — Dr. Asher Hasan said public-private partnerships are the most viable model for health tech and can offer each party shared resources, opportunities, and capabilities.
Talking to WealthPK, Asher said the e-health sector has suffered several setbacks in terms of viability of business models to both develop and implement digital health programs.
“Here at doctHERs, we believe a large number of challenges the e-health sector currently faces can be overcome with multi-lateral partnerships with like-minded partners,” he added.
Dr. Asher said collaboration with digital health stakeholders is also the key, as a ‘single player’ does not have access to every set of capabilities (e.g., IT, health, market expertise) or resources (e.g., infrastructure, funding, market access) required to succeed.
He said there is lack of a holistic ecosystem with enough diverse stakeholders and the agendas may be converging to visionary goals.
“Finally, we regularly see users across Sindh, Punjab, etc. with limited understanding of personal health, low usage of mobile devices by the older age users, and limited internet connectivity access in rural areas of Pakistan,” Dr Asher said.
He suggested that the Government of Pakistan take some key steps to unleash e-health nationally, such as promoting provisional and district-level health programs – possibly public-private partnership is the only way to strengthen the system for delivering quality maternal and child health services, including financially managing systems.
“Regular monitoring of existing and future e-health interventions for short and long-term change in outcomes can improve targeted areas of the health sector,” he added.
Dr. Asher said a real-time dashboard can provide immediate results of progress and bring Pakistan to the international scale where the availability of pharmaceutical medicines or healthcare workers in the vicinity followed by the expectant mothers transported to nearby centers for assisted delivery can allow live maps and surveillance – powered by digital technology.
Commenting on the future of e-health, Dr. Asher said it is important to consider how digital health is well-positioned in a low and middle-income country like Pakistan. The application of digital health can revolutionize health care in part by improving the uptake and adoption of mobile devices and internet technology in primary care.
“I’d like to view digital health as a concept that, while still in its infancy, has begun scaling in 2022, two years into the COVID-19 pandemic. We see an increased demand for digital health (e-consultations), practicing digital interventions and following social distancing protocols,” he added.
“If we consider digital health in a developing country context, we must understand the potential of hybrid health interventions – smart clinics and teleconsultations that we conduct at doctHERs — in commissioning ‘inclusive technology’ to increase access to healthcare, outcomes for users, and financial freedom for our intermediaries,” he said.
He said that in upcoming days, more public-private partnerships will explore regulating, mobilizing, and expanding the digital health sector largely to improve the healthcare system of Pakistan. “It is with a proper understanding of the health gaps that we can resolve and assess delivery obstacles in Pakistan,” he added.
Dr. Asher said three out of four medical graduates in Pakistan are female and a vast majority of them do not participate in the workforce due to sociocultural barriers, unfriendly working environments, and inflexible work hours. He said doctHERs was founded with the vision to empower female healthcare providers in Pakistan. Currently, there are over 2,000 female doctors, nutritionists, therapists, and licensed female pharmacists.
“doctHERs has positioned itself as the first Asian company to have been included in Fortune’s Impact 20 and has collaborated with key players in the region such as Unilever and FCDO. doctHERs financially empowers numerous female frontline healthcare workers — Guddi Bajis — across towns in Sindh, Punjab, and KPK,” he added.
Dr Asher said ‘Nuskhaa’ (an e-pharmaceutical solution) powered by doctHERs collectively positions itself along with ‘Naya Jeevan’ and doctHERs as Asia’s first accountable care organization (ACO) model in this region.
“We intend to fully develop and scale this model in line with our hybrid healthcare model in 2022 and beyond,” he added.
-INP
