Pakistan’s First AI-Health Convening Highlights Gaps in Digital Healthcare Infrastructure
Pakistan’s growing interest in artificial intelligence-driven healthcare came into focus on Friday as researchers, clinicians, policymakers, startup founders and public health experts gathered for the country’s first national convening focused on AI and health.
Organised under the National AI Hub by Lahore University of Management Sciences, the event brought together stakeholders from government, academia, hospitals and industry to discuss how AI can help address Pakistan’s healthcare challenges while identifying barriers preventing innovation from scaling nationally.
Opening the session, Mr. Shahid Hussain, Rector of Lahore University of Management Sciences and CEO of Services Group, stressed that meaningful progress in AI-powered healthcare would require collaboration between technologists, medical practitioners, policymakers and researchers.
Speaking at the convening, Dr. Ali Cheema, Vice Chancellor of Lahore University of Management Sciences, said Pakistan’s healthcare challenges require system-level transformation rather than isolated technological interventions.
“Pakistan is a middle-income country with maternal and neonatal mortality rates closer to low-income countries,” he noted, adding that rapid population growth and limited healthcare spending were increasing pressure on already strained systems.
He said innovation and AI present an opportunity to reconfigure healthcare delivery, but cautioned against treating AI as a “magic solution” without governance, ethical oversight and institutional reform.
Dr. Maryam Mustafa, Director of the National AI Hub, said the convening aimed to create a shared understanding of Pakistan’s emerging AI-health ecosystem and encourage collaboration between institutions that often work in silos.
“Pakistan has the pieces, but it has yet to draw the map,” she remarked, pointing to duplication of effort, fragmented health data systems and the absence of shared digital infrastructure as major barriers to progress.
Throughout the day, organisations working on AI-based health interventions presented active tools and pilot projects in areas including maternal and newborn health, digital health platforms, language-based AI systems and clinical decision support.
A panel discussion featuring public health experts and technology leaders highlighted the lack of interoperable health data systems, governance frameworks and scalable digital infrastructure as key challenges limiting AI adoption in Pakistan’s healthcare sector.
Participants stressed that while innovation in the sector is growing rapidly, long-term impact will depend on collaboration between government institutions, hospitals, researchers and technology developers to build sustainable and integrated systems.
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