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Pakistan-China Artificial Intelligence (AI) clinical diagnosis lab, headquartered at the Akbar Niazi Teaching Hospital in Islamabad, is offering free cervical cancer screening to 10,000 Pakistani women.
“It can also be used in the early diagnosis of other high-incidence clinical tumors, such as breast cancer, gastric cancer, oral cancer, etc.,” said the project lead from Landing Med, 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 diagnosing lab is very different from traditional clinical procedures where patients have to visit the hospital several times for specimen collection, report analysis, and treatment, 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 a diagnosis remotely and a report can be generated in about 5 minutes. Up until the moment, the service has been available to surrounding residents after trial diagnosis for the hospital staff proved efficient and reliable.
Cervical cancer has become the third most common cancer in Pakistan after head and 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 of cancer.
According to a study by the World Health Organization, 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.
China-Pakistan AI Cervical Cancer Screening Program started in 2019 at the ninth meeting of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor Joint Cooperation Committee.
Pakistan’s Ministry of National Health Services Regulations and Coordination is considering equipping more hospitals in Pakistan with such AI devices, CEN added.
Last December, Chinese medical technology firm Landing Med sent three cervical screening machines and 5,000 sets of supporting consumables to Pakistan for the lab’s development.
The AI-powered lab is more efficient than a regular one, as the specimen is analyzed, scanned, and transferred to the 5G cloud platform, eliminating the need for additional hospital visits. The service is currently being made accessible to the local population, and it has been demonstrated to be fast and dependable for hospital personnel following a trial diagnosis.
During the ninth session of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Joint Cooperation Committee in 2019, the China-Pakistan AI Cervical Cancer Screening Program was established. The Ministry of National Health Services Regulations and Coordination (NHSRC) in Pakistan is also contemplating equipping more hospitals with similar AI equipment.
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