In recent years, there has been considerable progress in Pakistan’s healthcare sector. We can’t say that everything is going exactly according to plan, but overall the trend is towards improvement.
Conventionally, health services and Pakistan do not go hand in hand. Pakistan’s healthcare sector has always lacked luster and efficiency, partly due to a shortage of facilities and partly due to the unprofessional conduct of the people involved in the provision of services. If we take a look at the end of the 20th century, there were widespread cases of easily curable but fatal diseases and disorders. The healthcare facilities were not up to date and most people used to trust Tibbs. Local chemists were not working in sync with the needs of the health sector. Even the government was not able to provide ample financing to the health sector, creating a great handicap for the chances of progress at that time.
Today, Pakistan is the sixth most populous country in the world, with one of the highest population growth rates, making effective management of existing healthcare resources an uncompromising necessity for all Pakistanis. In recent years there has been considerable progress in the health sector of Pakistan. Not everything is going exactly according to plan, but in general trends lead us forward. Several Health Care Establishments (HCEs) in Pakistan are research based, where practitioners use high-tech biochemical and biotechnological methods to test the effectiveness of various therapeutic drugs and treatment modes that are integrated in Pakistan. The government has also played a supporting role in advancing the health sector. The latest methods of vaccination, surgery, cancer treatments, organ transplants and laboratory tests have greatly helped Pakistan in reducing loss of life and improving the life expectancy of the general public. All these developments have certainly added luster to the healthcare sector in Pakistan.
The 21st century has moved towards automation and digitization. From business to entertainment, everyone prefers digitization. For these exceptional reasons, the global healthcare industry has also moved towards digitization. Taking a leaf from the developed sector of the world, a similar approach is also being followed in Pakistan. A service called “Healthcare Pakistan – One Stop Healthcare Marketplace” has been launched for the purpose of helping the people of Pakistan. This Portal aims to bridge the gap between patients and doctors, thus changing the way patients and doctors interacted with each other.
The usual way of approaching a doctor requires a patient to physically visit different hospitals to see multiple doctors, call hospitals and clinics to schedule appointments, and ask family members or other patients about each doctor to roughly estimate each doctor’s expertise. and then decide as which doctor would suit you. After making a decision, the patient would book an appointment. Once the appointment is booked, the patient will wait for the day she is due to meet the doctor. Once the time comes, she visits the hospital and patiently waits for her turn, only to learn that the doctor didn’t show up and the appointment is postponed.
To counter these types of situations and improve the overall healthcare experience, “Healthcare Pakistan” is a modern healthcare marketplace that addresses this issue in a unique way. It maintains a database of verified doctors, which is available to all patients. A patient can scroll through the platform to see doctors near him. You can view each doctor’s profile to see their certifications, level of experience, and opinions of other patients on that doctor’s profile. After making a decision, you can book an appointment with the push of a button. The doctor also receives an automated notification that an appointment has been booked. If the doctor doesn’t make it to the hospital or plans to take a day off in the future, he can cancel all appointments for a particular day with the touch of a button. In this way, time and energy are saved.
In addition, the “Healthcare Pakistan” platform also allows patients to post their diagnostic documents and reports before their appointment with the consultant. On the other hand, consultants can use Healthcare Pakistan as a marketing medium by maintaining their profiles, which will naturally gain more patients. The doctors will also publish health blogs and videos for enthusiastic readers so they can learn about the most popular medical stories on the Internet. “Healthcare Pakistan” portal is powered by a comprehensive healthcare information management system (HIMS) called “ClinicConnect”. ClinicConnect is developed by Softech Systems Private Limited, a leading eHealth and Fintech solutions developer in Pakistan.
Clinic Connect
ClinicConnect is a modern practice management solution built for both healthcare professionals and patients. Built by a group of experienced healthcare professionals and IT experts, ClinicConnect provides the muscle to meet the requirements of any size clinic, yet without compromising quality of care and management.
ClinicConnect offers modern clinic workflows including multiple consultants, online and walk-in appointment scheduling, consultant hours, consultant queue, billing, electronic medical records, telemedicine, voice notes, email/SMS reminders and much more. ClinicConnect is hardware friendly and accessible from anywhere, anytime, and on any device of your choice.
“Healthcare Pakistan” comes in a package along with ClinicConnect, which is basically a free service for patients, however, the healthcare consultants charge a monthly subscription fee.
· Consulting Portal: ClinicConnect offers a complete package of features that are essential for running clinics of any size. These features include patient registration, appointment management, patient EMR and billing services, etc. Quickly record symptoms, perform assessments, and write prescriptions. Easily save any size of patient data without maintaining IT infrastructure.
· EMR Patient: ClinicConnect offers a very complete Electronic Health Record management. ICD10, CPT and personalized diagnoses, comprehensive drug and medication dictionary, audio notes, patient vital signs, assessments and high quality video calls are part of the patient EMR module.
· Patient Portal: ClinicConnect’s patient portal allows patients to get instant appointments with just a few clicks from their favorite doctors without visiting or calling them. View your upcoming appointments, recent appointments, current medications, and diagnoses using ClinicConnect. Upload lab test results, evaluations, and other documents for your doctor to review.
· Mobile apps: ClinicConnect offers feature-rich mobile apps for consultants and patients. Mobile apps are available for Android phones and iPhones. Stay up to date with your care provider and patients through the ClinicConnect mobile apps.
In short, one can see many things in Pakistan’s healthcare sector that are shaping up for the betterment of this nation. Most of the things are still in the development stage but we can clearly see the difference that has emerged in recent years and it can be safely said that the best of the Pakistani healthcare industry is yet to come.
