Code for Pakistan partnered with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and its division, Transformation and Excellence Center for Health (TECH), to start the “TECH-NIH Fellowship Program” in 2021. The pilot of the Fellowship Program was a 3-month Fellowship that brought together technology developers, designers, and researchers from the public and healthcare experts from NIH to improve the department's internal processes and healthcare service delivery by leveraging technology.
As part of the first cohort of the TECH-NIH Fellowship, 6 fellows created 5 solutions for 4 NIH divisions, including the divisions of Antimicrobial Resistance, Biological Production, Clinical Trials Unit, and TECH itself, to automate the workflow processes, increase civic engagement, and digitally evolve the healthcare delivery system.
Among the digital solutions developed, the LabTech app and LAARC (Lab Assessment of Antibiotic Resistance Testing Capacity) dashboard have completely digitized the medical laboratories inspection process across Pakistan by developing a simplified online assessment mechanism. Through this app and online dashboard, a 4-day long exercise of manually filling in 1800 entries has been substantially reduced to a single-day process, thereby maximizing productivity through the adaptation of innovative lean methodology.
In addition to these the Fellows also worked on the following projects:
- Creating a digital portfolio for the Clinical Trials Unit
- Designing a new website for the Transformation & Excellence Centre for Health (TECH)
- Developing a prototype for a Mobile App Helpline for expecting mothers
