The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved $950,000 in regional technical assistance to support the adoption of artificial intelligence in the healthcare sectors of Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Indonesia.
The initiative will assess AI applications across health promotion, screening, diagnosis, and treatment, while developing structured roadmaps for responsible AI adoption. It will also help participating countries design governance frameworks addressing validation standards, data privacy safeguards, algorithmic bias mitigation, and post-market monitoring.
Three Focus Areas
The programme targets three key AI categories:
- Clinical AI: AI-assisted point-of-care diagnosis and treatment using image processing and pattern recognition.
- Healthcare Management AI: Tools to streamline appointments, consultations, prescriptions, follow-ups, and administrative processes, improving patient flow and reducing health worker burnout.
- Generative AI and AI Agents: Applications supporting telemedicine, medical education, and remote learning in underserved areas.
ADB noted that AI technologies — including big data analytics, deep learning, natural language processing, and robotics — have the potential to enhance diagnostics, treatment accuracy, drug discovery, personalised medicine, and health system efficiency. Administrative tasks such as record-keeping and claims monitoring may also benefit from automation.
Building Domestic AI Ecosystems
Beyond piloting use cases, the assistance will survey available AI tools, provide technical guidance, and support the development of domestic AI ecosystems. This includes strengthening research capacity, enabling technology transfer, supporting commercialisation, and improving procurement frameworks.
Addressing Structural Challenges
ADB highlighted broader systemic constraints facing member countries, including infrastructure gaps, equipment bottlenecks, uneven distribution of skilled health workers, limited training budgets, rising healthcare costs, and fragmented digital health systems.
Geopolitical tensions, economic uncertainty, and shifts in global health aid flows have further constrained healthcare investment, increasing the urgency for efficiency-driven innovation.
The programme aims to position AI not just as a technology upgrade, but as a structural enabler of more efficient, equitable, and resilient healthcare systems across the region.
