Last week, while I was investigating gender equality and Pakistan’s medical professionals, I found that for various reasons, 70 percent of medical students are female, while only 23 percent of registered doctors are female. Around 50 percent of female doctors never work after graduating, largely because they get married. They are thus called “doctor brides."
However, Asher Hasan M.D. found a way combat this shortage by launching a venture called doctHERs ™ to “ensure these women are doctors long after they’re brides”. The telemedic scheme states it’s aim is “to connect female doctHERs ™ to millions of undeserved patients in real-time while leveraging technology," and thus allows female medical professionals to work from their own homes.
doctHERs ™ alleviates the negative externalizations of two market failures: the lack of public access to healthcare (for both male and female patients), and the lack of inclusion of qualified women in the workforce. Thus, it provides both employment for female doctors who are unable to practice due to social or family pressures, and healthcare for under-served patients.
The organization “circumvents socio-cultural barriers that restrict women to their homes” through the use of video conferencing, mobile and internet technologies. One particularly exciting aspect about it is that it targets rural dwellers who may be unable to access healthcare due to transportation issues. The value of quality healthcare without the burden of travelling from a rural to an urban setting cannot be overstated.
Patients can come to local telemedicine clinics to connect to the network, and doctHERs ™ provide consultations from their homes over an internet connection. Telemedicine clinics or “teleclinics” are staffed with nurses that coordinate with these doctors. Due to awesome technology, the doctor “has access to the clinic's diagnostic tools and can monitor her patients' vital signs remotely”.
The first clinic was founded on "May 11, 2015 in a middle-urban slum located next to the Karachi International Airport known as Model Colony” and several have been founded across Pakistan since then.
With regard to payment, the organization uses mobile banking technology as a digital payment solution.
Although it seems that some of Pakistan’s female doctors don’t have the freedom to choose to continue practicing in regular clinics outside their homes, I like to think of this organization as promoting feminism and giving women more autonomy to practice their profession as well as to balance work and family and even bridge the perceived gap between the two.
If you’re interested in helping the organization, doctHERs.com tells us how we can “adopt a clinic” or upgrade an existing one. The monthly operating cost (not including the initial upgrade) would be $1250 a month, and this amount would help an additional 600 patients. That comes to just over $2 per patient; perhaps this cause is one you might be interested in fundraising for!