COMSATS Demonstrates Tele-Health Project at World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) at Tunis

On the sidelines of the presently on-going World Summit on Information Society (WSIS), in the capital of Tunisia, COMSATS with the support of Canadian development agency, IDRC, is demonstrating live its telehealth project using modern information communication technologies (ICTs). The Resource Centre with medical specialists at Islamabad is linked up with the Abdullah Hospital at Skardu, which is operated by Baltistan Health and Education Foundation (BHEF). Visitors at the IDRC’s exhibition booth can daily witness online the medical consultation of patients visiting the Tele-Health Centre at the hospital. The project serves as a model and learning experience for affordable quality healthcare in a remote area of the country, in particular Baltistan, Northern Areas. At present already more than 550 patients have been seen over a period of six months by medical specialists in the fields of Cardiology, gastroenterology, dermatology, nephrology and medicine. This ICT based project is being represented by Mr. Tajammul Hussain and Dr. Azeema Farid of COMSATS, and participants at the World Summit are taking keen interest in the live coverage of the tele-consultations.

This IDRC supported project in Pakistan has as other activities, the introduction of Internet services and demonstration of distance learning and information services for community and rural development in the Northern Areas, specifically Gilgit and Hunza.