President Alvi for adopting telemedicine, strengthening preventive healthcare
ISLAMABAD, Oct 13 (SABAH): President Dr. Arif Alvi has called for adopting digital technology and telemedicine, besides strengthening preventive health care to help overcome the increasing healthcare challenges faced by the underprivileged population of underserved areas of the country.
President Dr. Arif Alvi made these remarks during a meeting with the delegation of Global Executives of Siemens Healthineers led by Oley Per Maloy, CEO of the Middle East & South Asia (MESA) Regions, who called on him, at Aiwan-e-Sadr on Thursday.
Talking to the delegation, the President emphasized that healthcare providers should embrace innovation and transform healthcare delivery to improve the quality of healthcare services and enhance people’s access to medical services in a cost-effective and efficient manner. The President underlined the need to promote the preventive healthcare system by creating awareness about the importance of prevention and early detection of diseases by adopting a healthy lifestyle, which included observing cleanliness, regular exercise, eating a balanced diet, increasing the diet spread, management of tension and anxiety, avoiding smoking and use of drugs and seeking medical assistance at the early stage of health issues faced by them.
President Dr. Arif Alvi said that there was a need to repeatedly inculcate the importance of a healthy lifestyle and taking precautionary measures to prevent the occurrence of diseases, and ensuring the early detection of disease or illness to the general public through all possible means of communication. He added that the advance of smart devices and software solutions had a great potential to transform the medical sector, especially in our country where the health system was fragile and overburdened. The President stressed the need to develop telemedicine facilities and use mobile units to provide awareness, medical advice and treatment to the unprivileged segment of society in rural and far-flung areas who could not afford the high cost associated with diagnostic and curative healthcare.
President Dr. Arif Alvi expressed the need for enhancing collaboration with Siemens Healthineers by sharing knowledge, adopting the best practices and skill sets and innovation being made in the preventive health care system and provision of quality but cost-competitive and affordable health facilities to the masses.
Earlier, Ole Per Maloy briefed the President regarding various products of Siemens Healthineers. He said that Siemens Medical Solutions was the parent company of several medical technology companies in Germany, and was a leading healthcare solution provider to Pakistan in the domain of laboratory and radiology. He said that its core mission was to empower healthcare providers and help in expanding precision medicine, transforming care delivery and improving patient experience, enabled by the digitalization of the healthcare system.