Can AI ease Pakistan's growing health burden?

KARACHI: Chronic illnesses affect nearly half of all households in the country, The News reported citing an opinion poll conducted by Gallup Pakistan.

Published on June 2, the survey drew responses from a nationally representative sample of adult men and women across Pakistan. Respondents were asked whether anyone in their household suffers from chronic conditions and regularly takes medication for them.

According to the findings, 21% reported a household member with high blood pressure, 20% cited diabetes, and 10% said both conditions were present.

Meanwhile, 47% indicated none of these illnesses, and 2% were either unsure or did not respond. The poll carries a margin of error of plus/minus 2–3% at a 95% confidence level, suggesting a high degree of reliability.

Health experts have also raised concerns over Pakistan’s escalating chronic disease burden. According to the International Diabetes Federation’s (IDF) Diabetes Atlas 2025, the country now has the highest age-standardised diabetes prevalence rate in the world, at 31.4%.

Health professionals have emphasised that early detection and timely diagnoses are crucial to bringing down the economic burden of chronic illnesses like diabetes and hypertension as millions of patients are unaware that they even suffer from a chronic health problem, which increases the risks of severe complications like organ failure.

While new technologies like AI are revolutionising the global health landscape, including in tasks like early detection and treatment, the adoption of such technologies in Pakistan remains low.

According to Chairman of the Wireless and Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan (WISPAP) Shahzad Arshad, “adopting such AI-driven medical technologies promises a monumental leap in addressing its high chronic illness burden."

"By implementing AI-powered diagnostics, remote consultations and predictive analytics, Pakistan can … provide tailored, proactive care, ultimately improving health outcomes and making quality healthcare more accessible and affordable for its population”. However, the use of such technologies is still quite limited.

CEO of research firm Hina Shahrukh Group LTD, Sharukh Malik, says that the level of AI health technology in Pakistan is still mostly limited to more basic applications like chatbots that connect patients with a consultant after learning their symptoms.

The use of AI in more advanced tasks like actual diagnosis is far less prevalent. Malik says that some of the major obstacles to wider adoption of AI health tools include patients’ reluctance to rely on data sharing due to privacy concerns, high initial costs, and doubts about accuracy.

Some of these concerns are echoed by Head of the Department of Radiology at Dr Ziauddin Hospital Professor Dr Muhammad Ali.

Dr Ali says that, while the use of AI in healthcare has been taking place in Pakistan for quite some time and is expanding, there are challenges when it comes to sharing patient data with software houses to develop AI algorithms.

He also says that the lack of research-based posts or jobs in university hospitals makes it difficult for Pakistan to develop its own AI software.

To rectify this, private and public initiatives could perhaps heed Shahzad Arshad’s argument for a bigger shift towards AI health technologies, which he says would “require significant investment in infrastructure, training, and robust data governance”.