The Department of Health Research (DHR) under the Union health ministry will soon announce the much-awaited National Health Research Policy which will facilitate the generation of evidence-base for health systems and services, so that they will be significant promoters of equity and contribute to national development to make health research a poverty reduction tool.

The policy will be announced in a couple of months, Dr VM Katoch, secretary, DHR said.

Dr Katoch, who is also the DG, ICMR, added that the DHR has already finalised the policy and it will be put up before the union health minister for his final nod. Action has been initiated for setting up of necessary infrastructure for implementation of the policy.

The National Health Research Policy, drafted by the DHR around three years ago, envisions to maximize the returns on investments in health research through creation of a health research system to prioritize, coordinate, facilitate conduct of effective and ethical health research and its translation into products, policies and programmes aimed at improving health especially of the vulnerable populations.

The broad objectives of the policy include identifying priorities for effective and ethical health research to enable the achievement of the objectives of NHP 2002, NRHM, Bharat Nirman and National Food Security Act as well as global commitments such as MDG and IHR, ensuring that the results of health research are translated into action. It also aims to foster inter-sectoral coordination in health research including all departments within the government, private sector and the academia to promote innovation and ensure effective translation to encourage and accelerate indigenous production of diagnostics, vaccines, therapeutics, medical devices, etc.

The policy will also focus on the marginalized, the vulnerable and the disadvantaged sections of society and will also strengthen national networks between research institutes, academia and service and will encourage PPP.

The policy will put in place strategies and mechanisms for assessing the cost-effectiveness and cost benefits of interventions for health. It will develop and manage human resources and infrastructure for health research and will ensure that international collaborative research contributes to national health.