China-Pakistan medical AI (artificial intelligence) cooperation will boost local chronic disease screening, Gwadar Pro reported on Friday. Lately, at the first international “Medical Conference and Exhibition for Next Generation Healthcare” was held in Islamabad, where Chinese medical AI leader Airdoc Technology and Pakistan’s well-known medical device import and distribution company Dynamic Medical Company (DMC) officially signed a cooperation agreement to work together to promote the application of Airdoc retinal imaging AI products in Pakistan.
The Special Technology Zones Authority Chairman Amer Hashmi, ex-Surgeon General of Pak Army, Lt-Gen (r) Asif Mumtaz Sukhera, Health Services Academy VC Prof Dr Shahzad Ali Khan, former Ambassador to China Ms Naghmana A Hashmi, Advisor to GoP on Health Dr Ghazna Khalid, and numerous other professionals from public health sector attended the conference.
One of the major objectives of this conference was sensitizing the participants, the general public and the government to hereditary or genetic disorders, its timely diagnosis and available treatments. In his speech HAS VC Dr Khan said that Pakistan is ranked among the countries having high alert of genetic disorders, adding that majorly the increased incidence and prevalence of the genetic disorders are associated with lack of pre-natal testing facilities in the country.
“Faced with the increasingly serious disease burden in Pakistan, advanced medical technology is an inevitable solution at present.” Experts such as Ms Hashmi, former Pakistani ambassador to China, agreed that pre-marital testing and counseling in Pakistan’s health care system will effectively relieve the heavy burden of genetic diseases through technological intervention.
Initiating research evidence-based interventions for genetic diseases in Pakistan will open another dimension of trade i.e. Pak-China Health Corridor. At the meeting, Yang Yaquan, representative of Airdoc’s overseas business department, gave a keynote speech on “Artificial Intelligence Solutions for Early Screening of Chronic Diseases”, introducing that a series of chronic diseases such as high blood pressure, diabetes, coronary heart disease has a genetic predisposition.
The retina is the only part of the human body that can directly observe blood vessels and nerves non-invasively, thus by observing the subtle changes of blood vessels and nerves on the retina, people can glimpse the clues of more than 200 common chronic diseases. The application of AI technology has made this test, which has a solid medical theoretical foundation, more efficient and accessible, making large-scale early screening of chronic diseases possible.
The reporter learned that Airdoc will promote a portable fundus camera in Pakistan, which looks like a VR glasses, is very convenient to carry, and can be driven by ordinary power banks. After the user completes retinal photography according to the voice prompt, it only takes about 1 minute to receive an assessment report containing dozens of health risks.
The product has been applied to domestic and foreign medical, general health, eye health management and other scenarios, serving over 10 million users. If the product can be promoted to the medical and health system of Pakistan, it will be beneficial for the early prevention of local related diseases. It is worth mentioning that DMC in institutional collaboration with the Health Services Academy (HSA) and their Chinese partners plans to set up a Genetic Reference Laboratory and Research Center for genetic disorders in Islamabad.
CEO, DMC, Owais Mir mentioned during the closing remarks that this conference will create an enabling environment for all medical technology-based research and innovation in Pakistan and this is only the beginning. More awareness on mass level coupled with federal govt.’s support will bring plan to action in the form of genetic labs, DNA sequencing interventions, data mining and more.
