Guyanese will soon have easy access to community-based self-testing centres where they can walk in and conduct basic health screening, with readings fed directly into a national health information system that tracks their condition over time.

President Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali announced the initiative on Wednesday while addressing a national seminar on artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare at the Guyana Marriott Hotel in Kingston, Georgetown.

President Ali said the centres will be set up across communities and will utilise trusted local spaces, including hospitals, churches, mosques and temples, to make testing part of their daily routines.

In China, a similar initiative is being rolled out with the nation deploying AI-powered self-testing health kiosks to revolutionise healthcare.

He stressed that this grassroots layer is what will enable AI to work for Guyana, since primary healthcare generates the basic data needed for tracking and evaluation.

The self-testing initiative is one piece of a broader plan to bring Guyana’s health information under a single, integrated national platform.

Already, AI is driving the radiology programme in five hospitals across the country. And according to President Ali, the electronic identification (e-ID) will also be folded into the healthcare system.