Book on Telemedicine launched

LAHORE:A book titled "Telemedicine: A Novel Way to Fight a Pandemic" was launched here at the University of Health Sciences (UHS) on Monday.

The book, authored by British experts Prof Angus Wallace and Dr Sohail Chughtai, gives a detailed account of how telemedicine proved a success in Pakistan during COVID-19. University of Health Sciences (UHS) Vice-Chancellor Prof Javed Akram presided over the ceremony.

Delivering a lecture on the role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in healthcare, Dr Sohail Chughtai said in the present era, the role of telemedicine was like that of a doctor and the AI like a nurse.

Dr Chughtai claimed that more than 30 percent people visited hospital emergencies unnecessarily. "If the data is taken first through the mobile phone, the time of both the patient and the doctor will be saved", he maintained.

He said for the same purpose, companies like Google were improving the front camera of their mobile phones. He said AI could give a doctor more time to talk empathetically to his patient. Prof Javed Akram said AI could not be a substitute for a doctor in any case. He was of the view that AI should be used to predict future diseases and epidemics. Prof Bilal Mohy-ud-Din, Dr Somia Iqtidar, Dr Shehla Javed Akram, Dr Khurram Shehzad, Registrar Dr Asad Zaheer, Prof Saqib Mahmood, and Treasurer Baqee Bin Hanif also attended the event.