Artificial Intelligence in Pulmonary Diseases: A New Frontier for Pakistan’s Respiratory Care

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) is significantly advancing the field of pulmonary medicine by improving diagnostic accuracy, supporting clinical decision-making, and enabling more patients to receive respiratory treatments. From different areas of the world, evidence suggests that AI performs better than doctors, such as interpreting pulmonary function tests, classifying interstitial lung disease, detecting tuberculosis on chest X-rays, and identifying lung cancer at an early stage. By applying these technologies in Pakistan, where the burden of respiratory issues is high, they are very helpful to the health system. The AI-powered tools can address problems such as a shortage of specialists, delays in diagnosis, and limited resources, especially in remote areas. Nonetheless, effective adoption will necessitate strict checks on data quality, local population validation, ethical safeguards, and clinician training. If Pakistan adopts AI in a proper manner and creates its own datasets, it will not only be able to provide better respiratory care, tele-pulmonology services that are more widely used, and have a role in the advancement of global digital health innovation.