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Establishment/Strengthening of multi-disciplinary research units in government medical colleges during the 12th Plan period
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) today approved the proposal of the Department of Health Research in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare for the setting up of Multi-Disciplinary Research Units (MDRUs) in 80 government medical colleges at an estimated cost of about Rs.503.85 crore, during the 12th Plan period. Of these 35 units will be established in 2013-14 and 45 in 2014-15.
The measure will encourage and strengthen an environment of research in government medical colleges and bridge the gap in infrastructure which is inhibiting health research in medical colleges. This will improve the health status of the population by creating evidence based application of diagnostic procedures, processes and methods.
One time financial assistance upto Rs. 5.25 crore will be provided to each government medical college/institution for setting up of a modern biological lab/multi-disciplinary research unit. This will include Rs.5 crore towards equipment and Rs.25 lakh for minor civil works for modifications/renovation in the space to be provided by the state medical college. In addition, financial assistance of Rs.19.23 lakh per annum for meeting recurring expenditure towards staff and Rs.15 lakh per annum towards consumables/training/contingencies will also be provided for a period of five years to each medical college/institution.
The State Government will be required to provide requisite space (free of cost) for establishment of MDRUs in medical colleges and will also be required to take over the recurring expenditure liability of the labs after the project period of five years.
Background:
While research should have been the integral activity of medical colleges, a majority of medical colleges have confined themselves to routine patient care and are not pursuing newer methods of investigation for understanding pathological diagnosis, treatment and management practices. This is due to both lack of appropriate facilities for conducting research and lack of motivation on the part of faculty and students in medical colleges for conducting research. Government has therefore felt an urgent need to provide assistance to medical colleges to set up appropriate research facilities to promote and encourage quality medical research in the country.
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SC/NK/SKS
(Release ID :96846)
Establishment of a national network of laboratories for managing epidemics and natural calamities
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) today approved the proposal of the Department of Health Research under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare for the setting up of 10 regional labs, 30 State level labs and 120 medical college level labs under the scheme for establishing a network of laboratories for managing epidemics and natural calamities.
The scheme is estimated to cost Rs. 646.83 crore during the 12th Five Year Plan. The expenditure on the establishment of the labs at the State level and at medical colleges would be shared between the Central Government and State Governments in the ratio of 75:25 (90:10 in North-Eastern, Hill States, including Sikkim and Jammu and Kashmir). Expenditure on the regional labs would be fully borne by the Central Government.
This major initiative taken by the Government for establishment of a 3-tier network of laboratories across the country will greatly help in building capacity for handling viral diseases in terms of early and timely diagnosis, development of tools to predict viral disease outbreaks beforehand, continuous monitoring and surveillance of existing as well as new viral strains and handling viruses with a potential to be used as agents of bio-terrorism. The initiative shall also help in smooth data flow from across sites of epidemics, creation of efficient knowledge management network for policy interventions such as quick deployment of resources and measures like introduction of preventive strategies, new vaccines, etc.
Currently only national apex institutes like NCDC, New Delhi and NIV, Pune are mandated to undertake investigations. This leads to creating a heavy burden and affect their real referral role. The resultant delay in diagnosis/detection and inadequate/incomplete data during outbreaks significantly impacts on response time for interventions.
The regional labs will be equipped with state of the art BSL-3 facilities and the State level labs will have BSL-2 facilities. The lowest tier labs at medical colleges will be equipped with appropriate infrastructure to carry out serology for viruses (ELISA based diagnosis). In case of any outbreak / epidemic, these medical college level labs will carry out the initial diagnosis/ screening at the most peripheral areas nearest to the site of the outbreak. Each medical college lab will cover a cluster of three to four districts. While medical college labs will be expected to identify all listed common viruses, the viruses/agents which cannot be identified by these labs will be referred to the State/regional labs for identification and / or characterization.
All the laboratories will work under the overall guidance of apex institutions like NIV and NCDC through appropriate linkages and networking. The States/UTs which do not currently have any government medical colleges will be linked with the nearby State`s laboratories.
***
SC/NK/SKS
(Release ID :96844)
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) today approved the proposal of the Department of Health Research in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare for the setting up of Multi-Disciplinary Research Units (MDRUs) in 80 government medical colleges at an estimated cost of about Rs.503.85 crore, during the 12th Plan period. Of these 35 units will be established in 2013-14 and 45 in 2014-15.
The measure will encourage and strengthen an environment of research in government medical colleges and bridge the gap in infrastructure which is inhibiting health research in medical colleges. This will improve the health status of the population by creating evidence based application of diagnostic procedures, processes and methods.
One time financial assistance upto Rs. 5.25 crore will be provided to each government medical college/institution for setting up of a modern biological lab/multi-disciplinary research unit. This will include Rs.5 crore towards equipment and Rs.25 lakh for minor civil works for modifications/renovation in the space to be provided by the state medical college. In addition, financial assistance of Rs.19.23 lakh per annum for meeting recurring expenditure towards staff and Rs.15 lakh per annum towards consumables/training/contingencies will also be provided for a period of five years to each medical college/institution.
The State Government will be required to provide requisite space (free of cost) for establishment of MDRUs in medical colleges and will also be required to take over the recurring expenditure liability of the labs after the project period of five years.
Background:
While research should have been the integral activity of medical colleges, a majority of medical colleges have confined themselves to routine patient care and are not pursuing newer methods of investigation for understanding pathological diagnosis, treatment and management practices. This is due to both lack of appropriate facilities for conducting research and lack of motivation on the part of faculty and students in medical colleges for conducting research. Government has therefore felt an urgent need to provide assistance to medical colleges to set up appropriate research facilities to promote and encourage quality medical research in the country.
***
SC/NK/SKS
(Release ID :96846)
Establishment of a national network of laboratories for managing epidemics and natural calamities
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) today approved the proposal of the Department of Health Research under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare for the setting up of 10 regional labs, 30 State level labs and 120 medical college level labs under the scheme for establishing a network of laboratories for managing epidemics and natural calamities.
The scheme is estimated to cost Rs. 646.83 crore during the 12th Five Year Plan. The expenditure on the establishment of the labs at the State level and at medical colleges would be shared between the Central Government and State Governments in the ratio of 75:25 (90:10 in North-Eastern, Hill States, including Sikkim and Jammu and Kashmir). Expenditure on the regional labs would be fully borne by the Central Government.
This major initiative taken by the Government for establishment of a 3-tier network of laboratories across the country will greatly help in building capacity for handling viral diseases in terms of early and timely diagnosis, development of tools to predict viral disease outbreaks beforehand, continuous monitoring and surveillance of existing as well as new viral strains and handling viruses with a potential to be used as agents of bio-terrorism. The initiative shall also help in smooth data flow from across sites of epidemics, creation of efficient knowledge management network for policy interventions such as quick deployment of resources and measures like introduction of preventive strategies, new vaccines, etc.
Currently only national apex institutes like NCDC, New Delhi and NIV, Pune are mandated to undertake investigations. This leads to creating a heavy burden and affect their real referral role. The resultant delay in diagnosis/detection and inadequate/incomplete data during outbreaks significantly impacts on response time for interventions.
The regional labs will be equipped with state of the art BSL-3 facilities and the State level labs will have BSL-2 facilities. The lowest tier labs at medical colleges will be equipped with appropriate infrastructure to carry out serology for viruses (ELISA based diagnosis). In case of any outbreak / epidemic, these medical college level labs will carry out the initial diagnosis/ screening at the most peripheral areas nearest to the site of the outbreak. Each medical college lab will cover a cluster of three to four districts. While medical college labs will be expected to identify all listed common viruses, the viruses/agents which cannot be identified by these labs will be referred to the State/regional labs for identification and / or characterization.
All the laboratories will work under the overall guidance of apex institutions like NIV and NCDC through appropriate linkages and networking. The States/UTs which do not currently have any government medical colleges will be linked with the nearby State`s laboratories.
***
SC/NK/SKS
(Release ID :96844)