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By Sabeeh Zanair :
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved nearly $1 million in technical assistance to help Pakistan, along with Bangladesh and Indonesia, harness the power of artificial intelligence to transform its healthcare sector.
The $950,000 regional technical assistance program will assess AI applications in health promotion, screening, diagnosis, and treatment, and will develop a roadmap for AI adoption in the three South Asian and Southeast Asian nations.
The initiative aims to build on previous ADB support for digital health, which helped member countries adopt health information systems, establish common standards, and improve interoperability—laying what the bank describes as a strong foundation for big data analytics and AI applications.
Why It Matters
According to the ADB project document, AI applications have the potential to fundamentally transform how health services are organized and delivered. They could improve the efficiency, quality, and equitable access to healthcare services. AI leveraging big data analytics, deep learning, natural language processing, and robotics could enhance health management, diagnostics, and treatment capabilities.
These technologies also open new possibilities in rapid drug discovery and personalized medicine. AI can automate record-keeping, claims monitoring, and other administrative tasks; reduce health worker burnout; and enhance efficiency, transparency, and quality of patient-doctor interactions.
Three Key Areas of Focus
The assistance will concentrate on three types of AI applications that are becoming mature and relevant for ADB projects:
First, applications in the clinical context, including AI-assisted smart point-of-care diagnosis and treatment. Advances in image processing and pattern recognition now allow medical equipment to generate highly accurate diagnoses at the point of care.
Second, AI applications in healthcare management aimed at improving efficiency and the experience of both patients and health workers. Small hospitals could adopt AI solutions to provide seamless patient experiences—from appointments and registration to consultations, prescriptions, and follow-ups—and to help manage patient flow. AI could also automate administrative tasks, freeing up time for patient care and preventing burnout among health professionals.
Third, generative AI and AI agents could assist in distance learning, medical education, and telemedicine, providing clinical decision support for areas and populations with limited physical access to specialists.
Governance and Roadmaps
The governments benefiting from the assistance have requested the ADB’s help in developing practical AI governance frameworks for anticipated innovations. This includes validation mechanisms, ways to safeguard data privacy and avoid algorithmic bias, and strategies for post-market performance monitoring. The countries are also keen to learn from best practices and use cases for AI tools in clinical care and health management.
The technical assistance will deliver knowledge to inform the design and implementation of ADB projects in the three countries. It will survey available AI tools in healthcare and help member countries develop roadmaps for home-grown AI ecosystems that integrate considerations for research and development, technology transfer, commercialization, and procurement.
Challenges Remain
The ADB notes that intensified geopolitics, economic uncertainties, and major shifts in the global health aid landscape have constrained the investments needed to improve health outcomes. Governments continue to face gaps in health infrastructure, equipment bottlenecks, mal-distribution of qualified health workers, insufficient funding to upskill and incentivise staff, escalating health expenditure, and the proliferation of fragmented and non-interoperable digital health applications.
The new assistance aims to provide timely support to enhance the AI readiness of member countries’ health systems through technical support and capacity building, helping them navigate these challenges while embracing technological innovation.
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