Sardar Masood Khan, President Azad Jammu and Kashmir, upon invitation from the Executive Director COMSATS, Dr. S. M. Junaid Zaidi, who is the ex-officio Chairperson of CIS’ Board of Management visited COMSATS Telehealth Centre (CTH). CTH is housed at COMSATS Internet Services (CIS) Technology Park in Islamabad. The purpose of the invitation was t0 sensitize the AJK government on the need to establish tele-health facilities in the remote areas of Azad Kashmir to help deliver specialized healthcare services to the general public.Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Masood Khan declared universal access to modern health facilities for the general public a priority of the government of Azad Jammu and Kashmir. He considered Basic Health Units (BHUs) of Telehealth an integral part of relevant strategies.

The Honorable President was shown the data centre at CIS and a demonstration of Tele-consultations taking place at the Tele-health centre was also given. The visit was followed by a detailed briefing by Dr. Zaidi to President AJK on the services provided by COMSATS in connection to the initiatives taken in the field of tele-health, remote medical consultation, and treatment of patients.

President AJK considered CTH model beneficial for resource constraint, marginalized communities living in far-flung areas of Azad Kashmir. This, he said, shall help in providing a cost-effective, time saving and effortless access to basic clinical diagnostic facilities and expert opinions of medical specialists from leading hospitals of the country.

The discussions led to an understanding to materialize the idea of CTH in AJK. It has been initially planned to establish 16 Tele-Health Clinics in various regions of Azad Kashmir. These clinics will be operated from the already established BHUs in rural areas. Using the latest means of video conferencing and database management; the patients can be investigated and information regarding hospital referrals and prescriptions will be provided on-the-spot.

President AJK also said that Azad Kashmir is keen on being a part of the Information Technology revolution engulfing the region. He said that COMSATS Institute of Information Technology (CIIT), a Centre of Excellence of COMSATS, must take the lead and arrange interactive seminars in the Public Sector Universities of AJK in helping generate the interest of the students and integrating them in contemporary research initiatives. For this, he advised CIIT to explore collaborative programmes with Mirpur University of Science and Technology (MUST) especially in M.Phil. and Ph.D. courses.

The President praised the forward-thinking approach of COMSATS and said that such facilities will be an asset in providing healthcare to the underprivileged. He added that this will also provide a digital database of the patients with their updated medical records helping facilitate future consultation and maintaining vital health related statistics for any particular region.

He commended COMSATS for its work and expressed that the senior management of COMSATS should visit AJK to produce tangible results for the betterment of the region through more projects like Tele-health services.

President AJK opined that COMSATS Institute of Information Technology (CIIT), a Centre of Excellence of COMSATS, must take the lead and arrange interactive seminars in the Public Sector Universities of AJK in helping generate the interest of the students and integrating them in contemporary research initiatives. For this, he advised CIIT to explore collaborative programmes with Mirpur University of Science and Technology (MUST) especially in M.Phil. and Ph.D. courses.