Sehat Kahani

Sehat Kahani has a business model that responds to a societal circumstances in Pakistan whereby qualified women doctors are commonly prevented from working in hospitals.^[2] They employ women doctors, who work from home, providing tele-health services to patients in rural parts of Pakistan that are short of qualified healthcare providers.^[2]

Sehat Kahani is Urdu for "Story of Health."^[3]

Sehat Kahani is based in Karachi^[3] and run by Iffat Zafar Aga M.D. and Dr. Sara Saeed Khurram M.D.^[4]

Sehat Kahani was in formed in February 2017 as a for-profit spin off of healthcare startup docters.^[3][1]

Sehat Kahani delivers healthcare services in 35 rural clinics in Pakistan where female patients pay a fee to speak to women doctor via telemedicine.^[2][4] Sehat Kahani has treated over one million patients.^[5] In 2021, Sehat Kahani started a pilot program that expanded their work into 60 hospital intensive care units in Pakistan.^[6]

Patients are met at clinics by a nurse, who does an initial examinations before passing patient care over to a doctor, that connects by digital video link.^[3] In 2017, the Sehat Kahani network included 500 doctors, of which most are contractors, and 30 are employees.^[3] In 2020, another 100 doctors were added with support of private donors to the network.^[7] Patients pay between 50 and 500 rupees per visit.^[3]

Sehat Kahani was one of five winners of the Global 2021 We Empower United Nations Sustainable Development Goal Challenge.^[8]