Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Monday urged the Indian Council of Medical Research - National Centre for Disease Informatics and Research (ICMR-NCDIR) to help deliver benefits of their research to the common people.
On the foundation day of ICMR-NCDIR Harsh Vardhan presided over the celebrations and launch of the decadal year institute in Bengaluru through a video conference. He said, "On its foundation day, I exhorted the institute to help deliver benefits of their research to the common people."
The Minister also released results from the largest comprehensive national survey on risk factors and health systems preparedness of Non-communicable Diseases (NCD) along with the framework on the use of telemedicine for cancer, diabetes, heart diseases, and stroke, the Health Ministry said.
At the outset, Harsh Vardhan shared his deep gratitude on behalf of the whole country to the scientists of ICMR for their immeasurable contribution in controlling the pandemic, the Health Ministry said in a press release.
He said, "The year 2020 brings back memories of gloom due to COVID-19. Yet, it has also sowed hope. It was also the year of Science and Scientists. They not only eased the pressure on testing kits by developing indigenous kits but reversed the position completely with indigenous testing kits now being exported worldwide. ICMR was one of the first orgzations worldwide to have isolated the virus as well as the mutant strain and has contributed in creating a biorepository of potential drug targets."
"India is now producing and supplying vaccines to many countries out of which one is developed indigenously in entirety; the entire scientific community should be credited for the achievement," he added.
Expressing his elation at the release of the National Non-communicable Disease Monitoring Survey (NNMS) across India which also tracks cancer, he said, "The National Cancer Registry Program is a very valuable cancer surveillance tool for the country. Actions to tackle cancers benefit a lot from good and reliable data monitoring. This can help in the targeted screening of uncommon cancers through mass Non-convertible debentures (NCD) screening at Ayushman Bharat Health and Wellness Centres (HWCs)".
He further asked Secretary (Health Research) to explore legislative actions on making reporting of all forms of cancer mandatory for better health outcomes.
( With inputs from ANI )
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