Coronavirus: National clinical registry of COVID-19 patients to be rolled out by ICMR

The registry will also help in conducting clinical trials and study the effectiveness of new therapies that are being introduced for the treatment of coronavirus.

Coronavirus in India: The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) is working on to bring out a new database of COVID-19 patients who are admitted across the county. The ICMR has collaborated with the Health Ministry and All India Institute of Medical Sciences in this regard. The plan to bring such a rigorous database of Coronavirus is done in order to understand ways to improve treatment in hospitals. According to a report by The Indian Express, the database, also known as a national clinical registry for COVID-19 patients, will also allow the health officials in the country to conduct clinical trials and study the effectiveness of new therapies that are being introduced for treating the deadly infection.

The report said that 15 institutions will be involved to create this network. Moreover, they will also bring other medical colleges or hospitals (that are still waiting on clearances from the ICMR) on board as part of the exercise, the report quoted ICMR Director General Dr Balram Bhargava as saying. According to Bhargava, the ICMR, along with the Ministry of Health, currently possess the data of COVID-19 testing but they would also like to have patient data as well that will inform the health bodies regarding the patient case and progress.

The national registry is expected to roll out on priority, the report said citing Dr V K Paul, a NITI Aayog member. Paul also chairs the COVID-19 National Task Force. He stated that the government is looking at collecting data from patients of varying severity as well as from various parts of the country. Whatever data is registered after collection in a more systematic, structured, and a scientific way on a large set of variables, it can later be used as a repository. The report highlighted that a team of clinicians, scientists, analysts and biostaticians will run the registry.

It is to note that, for collecting data, as many as hundred hospitals have been identified that can take part in this government exercise. The idea is to understand the disease better and understand how the same determinants may or may not affect people in a different manner. This will also enable the health officials to check why some therapies work on some along with mortality rate among others.

Meanwhile in India, the number of confirmed Coronavirus cases has crossed the 15-lakh mark, where 509,447 cases are still active; 34,193 people have unfortunately succumbed to the deadly infection.