Date: 11/04/2023
Time: 12:00 (BST)
Location: Online
Democratising healthcare in Pakistan through telemedicine
In this webinar, Commonwealth Alumnus Dr Iffat Zafar Aga will discuss the potential of digital healthcare in Pakistan.
This webinar will mark World Health Day, taking place on 7 April 2023. Dr Aga will share information on Sehat Kahani, a telemedicine-based platform in Pakistan with the vision to democratise healthcare access for all using technology and a committed network of doctors. Dr Aga is the Co-Founder and Chief Operations Officer for Sehat Kahani, a start-up which was featured on Forbes’ 100 companies list in Asia.
In this webinar, Dr Aga will discuss how the network now includes around 7,500 healthcare professionals, the majority of whom are female. The aim of the platform is to empower community health workers to become microentrepreneurs. The platform includes a network of e-health centers, a retail application, and a corporate application.
This webinar will address the CSC development theme, Strengthening health systems and capacity.
The webinar will last for approximately one hour, including a Q&A session.
The CSC’s Development in Action webinar series provides an opportunity for Commonwealth Scholars and Alumni to present on their work and contribution to development across a range of contemporary global challenges and provide insight into ongoing research and action.
Open to all Commonwealth Scholars and Alumni, the monthly webinars will address one of the CSC’s six development themes and provide an opportunity for attendees to engage in real-time Q&A discussion on the topic presented.
You can watch previous webinars on the CSC’s YouTube channel.
Dr Iffat Zafar Aga is passionate about public health and through her telemedicine startup, she aims to provide healthcare access to people. Prior to her Commonwealth Scholarship, she studied medicine at the Ziauddin Medical University. She is a recipient of multiple awards including, Heroines of Healthcare Award given at the World Health Summit (2022), the TiE Singapore Women’s Global Competition (2022), the GBH Health – Future United Provocateur Award (2022), and the MIT Elevate Prize (2020). She is also a Global Challenges Canada Innovator (2020-22). Dr Aga was featured in the Microsoft4Africa 2020 list for women-led success stories in South Asia, the GSMA Accelerator (2018-19) list and was appointed a Good Fund Fellow 2017-18.
Dr Aga has also been a part of some prominent global accelerators and won notable awards including SPRING Accelerator, Engro I am Change Awards (2016), KITE-OSLO Local Competition, MIT Enterprise Forum Pakistan (2015) for which she went to MIT for the Entrepreneurship Development Program (2016), and Seedstars Regional Event (2015). She is also the winner of ‘The best in Healthcare’ at GIST (Global Innovation through Science and Technology) Tech I Event held at the United Nations Head-Quarters in Kenya Nairobi (2015). She has also been a part of the Invest 2 Innovate accelerator in Pakistan.
Dr Iffat Zafar Aga is a 2017 Commonwealth Distance Learning Scholar from Pakistan. She completed an MSc in Global eHealth at the University of Edinburgh.
