The federal government has decided to integrate artificial intelligence into the Prime Minister’s Health Card Program for disease diagnosis, a move expected to benefit around 200 million Pakistanis through faster detection of complex illnesses including cancer and neurological disorders. The AI based diagnostic system will be rolled out across approximately 1,100 public and private hospitals nationwide, covering Islamabad, Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, Gilgit-Baltistan, and Azad Kashmir.
According to an official statement issued by the Press Information Department, Alibaba linked DAMO Academy and Sky47 are expected to deploy AI powered disease screening systems across major Pakistani cities as part of the healthcare initiative. A formal agreement between the Prime Minister Health Card Program and Chinese technology giant Alibaba Group is expected to be signed next month, formalising the partnership behind the rollout. The Prime Minister has separately invited the head of Alibaba Group to visit Pakistan to help advance the collaboration.
Officials believe adopting AI in medical diagnostics could save the government billions of rupees by reducing testing costs, improving diagnostic efficiency, and enabling earlier detection of life threatening illnesses. Sources familiar with the programme’s finances said the federal government currently spends around Rs10 billion annually on the Health Card Program, while Punjab spends approximately Rs60 billion and Balochistan around Rs10 billion, with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa spending more than Rs40 billion annually on its own Sehat Sahulat Card programme, underscoring the scale of resources already committed to the health card system that the AI rollout is expected to complement.
Alibaba’s DAMO Academy has previously demonstrated AI powered medical imaging systems capable of screening for multiple diseases using non-contrast CT scans, with models such as DAMO PANDA already deployed in hospitals across China, where more than 70,000 patients have been screened for early stage cancer detection. The same underlying imaging technology was also used during the COVID-19 pandemic to identify signs of the virus in chest scans within seconds, a capability DAMO Academy has continued to refine and expand into broader multi-disease screening applications since then.
The initiative adds to a broader push to modernise Pakistan’s healthcare infrastructure, with Punjab Health Minister Khawaja Salman Rafique separately confirming that the Nawaz Sharif Institute of Cancer Treatment and Research Center is being built as the first fully free government cancer hospital in Pakistan, with patients at all disease stages, including level three and level four cancer, set to receive treatment at no cost once the facility becomes operational. Officials say the combination of AI driven diagnostic capability and expanded free treatment infrastructure reflects a broader effort to improve healthcare efficiency, speed up disease detection, and reduce pressure on Pakistan’s public health system as the government continues expanding the reach of its health card programmes nationwide.
Follow the SPIN IDG WhatsApp Channel for updates across the Smart Pakistan Insights Network covering all of Pakistan’s technology ecosystem.
