Pakistani and Indian doctors have joined hands to provide better health care to patients through an only online clinic of its kind in Pakistan's biggest city.
Called the "Peace Clinic", a virtual world has been established in one of the big room's of the Dr Ziauddin University Hospital. The patients can talk to medical experts in India to find treatment and cure for chronic and serious illness which range from allergies to liver diseases.
"I initiated the idea of this peace clinic because I went to India 10 years back for a heart surgery and came back healthy and happy," Naved Aslam a businessman told PTI.
"I had a rare heart condition and no doctor was willing to operate on me that is when I got in touch with Indian surgeons and travelled to India," he said.
It was Aslam who took the idea of the virtual Peace Clinic to the Ziauddin University Hospital administration which responded positively.
"They were excited at this idea and co-operated and provided all assistance in launching this clinic 11 months back," Aslam recalled.
He said that preparations were also being made to establish a liver surgery unit at the hospital where patients can undergo surgery. These surgeries will be performed once a month by Indian doctors who will travel to Pakistan while Pakistani doctors have already started to go to India to get training on pre and post liver surgery care," he said.
Aslam said even when there are no Indian surgeons or doctors in person they will be able to monitor their patients through online systems.
"A trolley with a webcam and a computer will be present on each patient's bedside and surgeons in India will be able to talk to their patients everyday and monitor their progress," he said.
The hospital officials claimed, the Peace Clinic to be the only one of its kind in Karachi.
"There is no doubt that patients face difficulties if they have to travel to India for any surgery or treatment and my campaign was to get hospitals in India to those in Pakistan because Medicine in India is more advanced and has a lot to offer to ailing patients."
Presently the Ziauddin Hospital is connected with Medanta, the Apollo Hospital and Fortis Hospital in India.
In the Peace Clinic, the patients would sit in front of high definition webcams and talk to doctors online from hospitals in India who diagnose and suggest treatment based on the patient's reports and medical history already sent to them via email.
