{"id":2498,"date":"2025-06-09T10:20:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-09T05:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/?p=2498"},"modified":"2025-06-09T08:24:30","modified_gmt":"2025-06-09T03:24:30","slug":"can-ai-alleviate-pakistans-chronic-health-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/2025\/06\/09\/can-ai-alleviate-pakistans-chronic-health-crisis","title":{"rendered":"Can AI Alleviate Pakistan\u2019s Chronic Health Crisis?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-start=\"67\" data-end=\"583\"><strong>ISLAMABAD: Pakistan faces a growing health burden, with nearly half of its households affected by chronic illnesses such as diabetes and hypertension.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p data-start=\"67\" data-end=\"583\">A recent Gallup Pakistan survey revealed that 21% of households reported high blood pressure and 20% reported diabetes among their members.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"67\" data-end=\"583\">With the country holding the world\u2019s highest age-standardized diabetes prevalence rate at 31.4%, health experts emphasize the urgent need for early detection and management to reduce complications and costs.<\/p>\n<h3 data-start=\"585\" data-end=\"624\">Current State of AI in Healthcare<\/h3>\n<p data-start=\"625\" data-end=\"1135\">While artificial intelligence is transforming healthcare globally by enabling early diagnosis and personalized treatment, its adoption in Pakistan remains limited.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"625\" data-end=\"1135\">Presently, AI health technologies in the country are mostly confined to basic applications like chatbots that connect patients with doctors based on symptom inputs.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"625\" data-end=\"1135\">Advanced AI uses such as diagnostic algorithms and predictive analytics are rare due to factors like privacy concerns, high implementation costs, and skepticism over accuracy.<\/p>\n<h3 data-start=\"1137\" data-end=\"1171\">Challenges and Opportunities<\/h3>\n<p data-start=\"1172\" data-end=\"1740\">Experts including Shahzad Arshad, Chairman of WISPAP, believe AI-powered healthcare could revolutionize chronic disease management by offering remote consultations and tailored care.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1172\" data-end=\"1740\">However, obstacles remain: reluctance to share medical data, lack of research infrastructure, and a shortage of specialized roles in university hospitals hinder AI development.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1172\" data-end=\"1740\">Professor Dr Muhammad Ali of Dr Ziauddin Hospital highlights the need for improved data governance and investment in training and infrastructure to unlock AI\u2019s potential in Pakistan\u2019s healthcare system.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1742\" data-end=\"1905\">Embracing AI-driven solutions could be a game changer for Pakistan, helping to improve access, affordability, and outcomes in the fight against chronic diseases.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ISLAMABAD: Pakistan faces a growing health burden, with nearly half of its households affected by chronic illnesses such as diabetes and hypertension. A recent Gallup Pakistan survey revealed that 21% of households reported high blood pressure and 20% reported diabetes among their members. With the country holding the world\u2019s highest age-standardized diabetes prevalence rate at &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":2499,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[1152,1241,1240],"class_list":["post-2498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","tag-ai","tag-chronicdiseases","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2498"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2498\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2500,"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2498\/revisions\/2500"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}