The National Institute of Biologicals (NIB) and the Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission (IPC) will jointly enrol all the medical colleges in the country for the centralized haemovigilance programme of India (HPI) by 2017, said Dr Surinder Singh, director of NIB.

A centralized HPI was launched in the country on December 10, 2012 by NIB to give awareness among all medical personnel connected with transfusion medicine and to ensure safe methods of transfusion.

While talking to Pharmabiz over telephone, the former DCGI said so far 140 medical colleges have enrolled for the HPI and it is hoped that by 2017 the NIB and the IPC will succeed in enrolling the remaining 369 medical colleges from across the country for the program. Efforts will be taken to include the private medical colleges also into the ambit of the programme.

Dr Singh has reached Kochi in Kerala to inaugurate the sixth national CME programme on haemovigilance at Amrita hospital on November 8. The programme is organised by state drugs control department with the support of NIB and IPC.

Sources in the drugs control department informed that medical and technical personnel from 180 blood bank units and attached hospitals and medical colleges would attend the workshop. They will be trained on how to record the adverse reactions through a software developed by the NIB.

Dr Surinder Singh will inaugurate the programme in the morning, followed by it a panel discussion on HPI will be held. Dr Suseela Inna from Jubilee Hospital, Dr Narayanan Kutty, president of IMA Kerala branch, Dr K Manivannan from CDSCO, Dr Ravi Menon from Kerala drugs control department, Dr G Selvaraj, former director of TN DC, and Dr J T Prasad, scientist from NIB will deliberate on the subject in the panel discussion.

According to Dr Singh, the programme will help track and record the adverse reactions or events that may occur while a patient receives blood or blood products, and if any error is detected preventive steps can be taken. The main objective of the HPI is to eliminate the errors in transfusion medicine and the national institute has prepared a software to help detect the errors.

He said so far 667 reports of adverse reactions were recorded and reported to NIB by the enrolled hospitals. Haemovigilance Programme of India is targeted to become member of International Haemovigilance Network by the end of Year 2014.