Bill to set out the ethical guidelines was put together by the ICMR and was likely to be tabled in the current session of the Parliament, said Vishwa Mohan Katoch, former Director General of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).
He was speaking at the inauguration of a foundation by Kovai Medical Center and Hospital (KMCH) with the objective of promoting quality healthcare. Foundation will focus on clinical research. It will concentrate on promoting preventive healthcare to combat communicable and non-communicable diseases.
Mr. Katoch, said that transformational research will come from well-designed studies.
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It was not necessary to follow the expensive models of the West, he said adding that it can be supplanted with low-cost but effective indigenous models.
The ICMR, he said, was among the eight Central agencies that funded health research in the country. There has been a lot of convergence among the objectives of agencies in the recent years.
Further, any recognised health institution, both public and private, can apply for research funding.
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Nalla G. Palaniswamy, chairman of the Hospital and the foundation, said that they had carried out a research project on diabetes, hyper-tension and renal diseases at a village in Erode, whose results would be utilised to improving the quality of life for people in rural areas.
The foundation would also take up cutting-edge research in areas such as stem cell therapy, nano-technology, organ transplantation and developing new devices. Krishnan Swaminathan, president of the foundation; Thavamani D. Palaniswami, vice chairman; T. Pradeep, IIT – Madras; Krishna Kumar, Deputy Director, Vision Research Foundation, Chennai; S. Swaminathan, Director Centab, Sastra University, Thanjavur, and Ajit Shinto, Chief of Nuclear Medicine, KMCH, spoke.
The foundation will take up research in areas such as stem
cell therapy, and
nano-technology