ICMR soon to begin research on ambulatory care for NCDs in public health care systems in India
The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has invited Expression of Interest (EOI) for Implementation Research Study on Ambulatory Care for Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) in Public Health Care Systems in India.
The EoI is aimed at developing practical, scalable, and sustainable strategies that provide evidence-based effective management of non- communicable diseases in India’s public healthcare systems under the National Programme for Non-Communicable Diseases (NP-NCD).
There is a need to deliver effective NCD ambulatory care in public primary health care systems using a combination of strategies, including the use of available point-of-care testing for diagnosis and follow-up, capacity building of providers to reduce physician inertia, use of easy-to-use treatment algorithms, improved supply logistics of essential drugs and diagnostics and simplified data information systems.
India’s public primary health care system was built to cater to maternal and child health and infectious diseases. However, NCDs currently comprise the largest proportion of the disease burden in the health care system. Managing non-communicable diseases needs lifelong care support and a reliable information system to track and follow up with patients to monitor indicators and prevent complications.
The National Programme for Prevention and Control of Cancer, Diabetes, Cardiovascular Diseases & Stroke (NPCDCS), was established in 2010, aims at the management of NCDs through early diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up in the NCD clinics with a programmatic goal to reduce premature mortality due to non-communicable diseases through effective prevention and control of NCDs in public health care system.
Under this ambit, a need exists to develop and test pragmatic strategies for implementing known and effective interventions to provide ambulatory care for non- communicable conditions.
One such example is the India Hypertension Control Initiative (IHCI), built on the existing framework of NP-NCD since 2018, which is being implemented in 140+ districts of the country and has demonstrated reasonable success in registering and retaining patients with hypertension and controlling blood pressure.
The IHCI was built on the World Health Organization (WHO)’s HEARTS strategies- simple drug and dose-specific protocols, uninterrupted availability of medications, patient-centered care, a team-based approach with task sharing, and a reliable information system.
The EOI documents will be evaluated and shortlisted by the ICMR. The ICMR expert team will screen the applications using five major criteria like relevance and understanding of the problem, intervention implementation strategies and research methods, research team composition, capacity to conduct implementation research and relationship with the health system.
The shortlisted teams will be invited to collaborate and develop a detailed proposal coordinated through ICMR HQ. The developed proposal will be evaluated by the expert group for the technical and operational aspects.
The EOI can be submitted through ONLINE MODE ONLY by scientists/professionals with regular employment in medical institutes/research institutes/universities/ colleges/government and semi-government organizations and NGOs (documentary evidence of their recognition, including a Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) certificate should be available). Last date for submission of EOI is July 16, 2023 and shortlisting of EoIs will happen on August 15, 2023.
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