Punjab becomes first province to digitally map citizens’ health profiles

LAHORE: Punjab has become the first province in the country to digitally map the health and demographic profiles of its citizens, with the province’s first and largest-ever digital health census nearing completion under Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif’s Community Health Inspectors Programme.

More than 85 percent of the population in 18 districts has been covered through health and demographic profiling. Five districts have achieved 100 percent coverage, while another five districts have completed over 95 percent profiling. Nearly 94.3 million health and demographic profiles have been registered across Punjab.

A modern disaster recovery site would be established to ensure the security and protection of Punjab’s health database. As many as 16 cardiac catheterisation laboratories (Cath Labs) would be made operational across the province by December. Five Cath Labs are already functional, while facilities in Bhakkar, Bahawalnagar and Layyah are going to become operational. The Chief Minister directed that Phase-II Cath Labs in eight additional districts be completed by the end of July.

The progress was reviewed during a high-level meeting of the Health and Population Department chaired by Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif. The meeting was informed that every household in Punjab had been assigned a unique identification number through digital mapping, while 14,300 Community Health Inspectors had conducted door-to-door visits to collect citizens’ medical, demographic and socio-economic data.

The Chief Minister personally reviewed the programme’s digital dashboard, which now contains comprehensive information on citizens’ health status, lifestyle, economic conditions, access to drinking water and disabilities.

The Chief Minister also sought weekly performance reports on the operational Cath Labs. She directed officials to further improve the home delivery system for medicines and instructed the Health Department to launch a comprehensive population management campaign to address the province’s growing population. “Without authentic data, no policy can be effective,” the CM said, adding that healthcare services would now be planned and delivered on the basis of 100 percent verified digital data instead of estimates. She observed that accurate data was essential to determine the number of patients and medicines required in each area and noted that many basic health issues and diseases had never before been systematically documented.

The meeting was informed that a proposal had been presented to launch the Maryam Nawaz Sehatmand Gharana Programme, under which citizens would be directly linked with primary healthcare centres, reducing unnecessary visits to hospitals. Patients suffering from diabetes, hypertension, hepatitis, cancer and malnutrition would also be monitored through a digital follow-up system.

Expressing satisfaction over Punjab’s anti-polio efforts, Maryam Nawaz welcomed the negative environmental polio samples reported from 19 districts and paid tribute to frontline polio workers for their tireless commitment to safeguarding children against the disease.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2026