Heroes of change: The pioneers impacting lives worldwide

From bringing healthcare to villagers to helping the paralysed walk again, these game-changers, who are supported by the Rolex Perpetual Planet Initiative, have tapped science to make a difference to this place we call home

- 

Call it saving lives from a screen. In Pakistan, 2019 Rolex Awards Laureate Sara Saeed's medical service Sehat Kahani is bringing critical healthcare to poor and hard-to-reach communities by enabling female doctors to see patients online.

So far, the women have helped people who have been abused, treated children with pneumonia and even diagnosed cancers.

The innovation is making a big difference because half of the people living in the nation's low-income and rural areas cannot get basic healthcare.

Ms Saeed, a medical doctor by training herself, says: "A lot of female doctors don't work after getting their professional degree.

Instead, they stay at home having a family. We're putting these female doctors back into the workforce within the cultural barriers that exist in Pakistan." The 37-year-old Pakistani has built a network of e-clinics where nurses conduct initial examinations before connecting the patient to a female doctor via a digital video link.

The e-clinics also train women in the community to go door-to-door to offer preventive healthcare.