The high power committee (HPC), headed by Prof P N Tandon, has recommended to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) to bring out the disease specific documents with current status, which would be helpful to the policy makers and programme managers and the lay public as well.
The committee further notes that many ICMR institutes are working in common disease specific areas in different geographical locations and ethnic diversity. HPC advised a cohesive and coordinated approach to avoid duplication of efforts.
The union health ministry had constituted the committee in December, 2012 to evaluate the ongoing activities of the ICMR with the mandate of whether the ongoing schemes of the XI Plan need to be continued in XII Plan or dissolved forthwith; in case if they are to be continued then the need for improvement; phasing expenditure in XII plan for each component of the scheme; and setting of physical and financial milestones/targets for the XII Plan for each component.
In its report the committee recommended that ICMR institutes should develop linkages with local medical colleges and other institutions to better utilise the infrastructure facilities and broaden the research horizon in the country. Besides, it has recommended that the ICMR should direct and focus its research towards eradication of leishmaniasis, filariasis, paraginomosis (lung fluke) and leprosy.
The committee also recommended that efforts may be accelerated for setting up of laboratories and field units across the country including remote areas to tackle the emergencies such as natural disasters and epidemics.
Initiation of new activities in emerging areas such as regenerative medicine, biomedical engineering, bio-security, bio-safety, tissue engineering, emerging environmental health hazards, gender and adolescent health, dental health, psycho-social aspects of geriatric health, impact of climate change on human health etc. were also recommended.
The committee while commending the recently started translational program of ICMR recommended strongly that promising leads identified by ICMR Institutes should be commercialised for providing affordable and cost-effective diagnostics, vaccines and drugs after independent evaluation.