Drones to digital: Asia, Africa find ways to plug COVID-19 health gaps

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LONDON — As COVID-19 strains Pakistan’s health system, tens of thousands of women doctors are sitting at home, their talents squandered in a country where millions have no access to medical care.

Many families encourage their daughters to study medicine not for a career, but to bolster their marriage prospects. The phenomenon even has a name – “doctor-brides.”

Appalled by the waste of expertise, entrepreneur Sara Saeed Khurram has set up a telemedicine platform enabling female medics to provide e-consultations from their homes to patients in rural communities.

“Half the population in Pakistan — 100 million people — never get to see a doctor in their lifetime,” Khurram, CEO o…

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