AI-based medical laboratory starts functioning in capital

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan-China joint Artificial Intelligence (A-I) medical diagnosis laboratory in Islamabad has been put into operation.

Chinese diplomatic sources told the media on Friday that the laboratory was located in the Akbar Niazi Teaching Hospital of the federal capital’s Bhara Kahu area, which will provide free cervical-cancer screening to 10,000 Pakistani women in its first phase of operation.

It can also be used in the early diagnosis of other high incidence clinical tumors, such as breast cancer, gastric cancer and oral cancer, said a Chinese medical technology company that provided three cervical-cancer screening devices along with 5,000 sets of supporting consumable items to Pakistan last December for the lab construction.

The AI-powered lab streamlined the operation by processing the specimen, scanning the slides and uploading them to the 5G cloud platform. Once data upload is complete, a medical team in China can make diagnosis remotely and a report can be generated in about 5 minutes.

Cervical cancer has become the third most common cancer in Pakistan after head-neck and breast cancers, and around 64 percent of Pakistani women who have this cancer lose their lives as they only discover the disease when it becomes almost incurable in the third or the fourth stage. According to a study by the World Health Organization (WHO), cervical cancer incidence in Pakistan reached 4.7 per 100,000 women in 2020. However, from 2015 to 2019, fewer than 1 in 10 Pakistani women were screened for cervical-cancer. Thus AI-powered, efficient and effective screening services can greatly enhance screening coverage.

Pakistan-China AI Cervical Cancer Screening Program started in 2019 at the ninth meeting of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Joint Cooperation Committee. Pakistan’s Ministry of National Health Services Regulations and Coordination is considering equipping more hospitals in Pakistan with such AI devices, the sources added.