Dr. Muhammad Salman, Chief Executive Officer of the National Institutes of Health Pakistan, called on the Pakistan Digital Authority at PDA headquarters in Islamabad, where he met Aamer Rana, Member PDA, and Sophia Hasnain, Chief of Staff, to exchange perspectives on strengthening Pakistan’s health research and digital health ecosystem. The meeting reflected a shared view that digitizing health systems is not simply a technology project, but a mechanism that allows a system to see itself clearly enough to improve.
The discussion covered NIH’s role across Pakistan’s health research and delivery system, including the functions of its specialized institutes. Two mechanisms received particular attention during the meeting, the Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response system, through which outbreaks are detected and acted on, and the National Health Data Center, which manages and safeguards national health data. Both mechanisms represent core components of how Pakistan currently tracks and responds to public health developments at a national level.
The meeting also reviewed the status of periodic disease bulletins and identified the need for closer alignment between the units that produce and use them, so that decisions rest on current evidence rather than on the most recent available report. Both sides discussed the potential of an integrated digital health stack capable of bringing critical health information together, with AI supported analysis intended to surface findings sooner than manual review would typically allow, pointing toward a more proactive approach to public health monitoring.
The engagement reflects a shared commitment between NIH and PDA to building a more connected, data driven and technology enabled public health system for Pakistan. Officials from both institutions agreed to take the work forward, framing the collaboration around the broader principle that a health system capable of measuring itself is one that can be improved deliberately rather than reactively, an approach that aligns with PDA’s wider mandate to advance digital public infrastructure across various government sectors.
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