The department of health research (DHR) will soon establish the Medical Technology Assessment Board (MTAB) which will carry out the review of different medical technologies including instrumentation on a continued basis in the country.
Senior officials in the DHR said that currently, introduction of different technologies including instrumentation is not based on sound analysis by independent and neutral experts in the country. It is often based on recommendations and suggestions of end users who may not be well versed on the comparative usefulness of different technologies and equipments. This results in incurring unjustified expenditure without adequate proof of advancement and is also harmful to the growth of industry aimed at production of affordable tools.
The department's Task Force had also earlier recommended to establish a Medical Technology Assessment Board in the DHR to carry out the review of such technologies on a continued basis. The recommendations of the Board would be available to the end users in a transparent manner and will be of immense help to the government system, officials said.
Besides, the DHR will also establish a Medical Technology Promotion Board which will enable identification of promising leads and technologies that could be translated into products for their further development and mass application.
Officials in the DHR said that different government agencies have been making efforts to promote the development of new diagnostics, therapeutics including drugs, medical devices and other health products as vaccines. The DHR plans to focus on those technologies which have wide public health application. The efforts will be coordinated with the other science departments as well as the three departments of the ministry of health & family welfare to enable identification of promising leads and technologies that could be translated into products for their further development and mass application.
The DHR would also set up a strong Information Technology-based, user-friendly electronic project management system for the entire process of seeking, evaluating and processing grant applications from investigators both from within and outside the ICMR system. Also, a strong and vibrant and user-friendly e-governance system would be put in place for public dealing. A repository storing the entire data generated through the DHR support will be set up with appropriate retrieval systems to facilitate use of the data and other information generated by scientists and other users.