Pakistani-Saudi telehealth to launch maternity, childcare services in Yemen

KARACHI: A lifesaving Pakistani-Saudi online telehealth platform is to launch a vital new maternity and childcare service in war-torn Yemen.
Following the success of its e-Doctor program in Pakistan, the Educast-run digital training and education initiative is to be expanded out into other countries, the group’s chief executive officer told Arab News.
Educast has trained hundreds of Pakistani doctors in telemedicine since 2019 and now aims to utilize their expertise in Yemen, which has one of the highest maternal mortality ratios in the world.
A team of 200 Arabic-speaking, licensed Pakistani female doctors residing in the Middle East will provide the e-consultancy services in Yemen.
“Our main focus in Yemen will be maternal, neonatal, and child health,” said Abdullah Butt, CEO of Educast.
“Authorities in Yemen have granted us permission to start the telehealth operations under the e-Doctor program. The installation and testing of relevant equipment has been completed and operations will be launched in the first week of September.”
The e-Doctor initiative was launched in Pakistan in 2019 with academic support from Dow University of Health Sciences in Karachi, Sindh province, to lure back Pakistani women doctors who had stopped practicing medicine for a number of reasons, top among them being family pressure or relocation abroad following marriage.
“We have provided online training to 800 female e-doctors, working remotely from home in 15 countries. At present, through the platform, 450 women e-doctors are attached to Sindh government’s central coronavirus disease monitoring cell which remotely oversees thousands of COVID-19 patients,” Butt added.
Under the patronage of Prince Miteb bin Thunayan bin Muhammad Al-Saud and Prince Abdul Aziz bin Miteb Al-Saud, Educast plans to increase the scope of its e-Doctor program in different countries around the world.
“Some 200 licensed Pakistani female doctors residing in the Middle East will provide their e-consultant services in Yemen due to their familiarity with Arabic,” Butt said.
The e-Doctor program in Yemen will be launched with local partner, Empowerment Relief, in Marib city, at Al-Jufaina camp for internally displaced people, in the
western part of the country.
Ghulam Mustafa Tabbasum, head of e-Doctor operations in Yemen, told Arab News that as well as teleclinics, the company would also provide training to local health workers.
“Through this project female health workers, nursing staff, and paramedics will be trained by experts using our online interaction lectures with experts,” Tabbasum said.
Pakistani doctors involved in the project said that they were looking forward to the prospect of serving Yemeni mothers and children who were in dire need of access to skilled care.
“I will do my best, using my skills and knowledge, to help people in Yemen with the crisis and difficult situation they are facing,” UAE-based Dr. Saima Shamim
told Arab News.
“Mothers and children in war-torn Yemen need our help and I am excited and feel honored to serve them from Oman,” said Muscat-based