Managing non-Covid diseases in focus of latest ICMR review
NATIONAL CENTRE FOR DISEASE INFORMATICS AND RESEARCH IS USING ITS MANY REGISTRIES TO TRACK PATIENTS, AND IDENTIFY AND ADDRESS GAPS IN DISEASE MANAGEMENT
NEW DELHI: How to adjust drug dose in cancer patients who are on chemotherapy or optimise dialysis benefits to avoid frequent hospital visits by patients with chronic kidney conditions is part of a large Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) review of management of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in the times of Covid-19 restrictions and increased infection risk.
People with major NCDs run the risk of developing a severe form of Covid-19.
ICMR’s National Centre for Disease Informatics and Research (NCDIR) is using its many registries— cancer, cardiovascular disease etc — to track patients, and identify and address gaps in disease management.
“Since the virus is here to stay, we will have to work around the restrictions .... There are nonCovid patients, especially those with major NCDs involving heart, kidney, brain etc. who need regular care but run the risk of contracting infection if they are made to frequent hospitals, and are likely to develop severe form of illness because of their co-morbid conditions,” said Dr Prashant Mathur, director, NCDIR, who is working on the guidelines.
According to the Union health ministry data, of the 165,799 total confirmed Covid-19 cases reported from India, at least 70% of the patients were suffering from some underlying medical condition such as hypertension, diabetes, kidney or liver disease. Also, among 4,706 deaths that India has reported so far, at least 75% were suffering from at least one of these chronic conditions.
The guidelines will have three aspects to it: one will focus on how to manage patients with existing NCDs, another will be to guide medical staff in treating these patients, and the third aspect is to launch minor studies on coping mechanism.
“The main focus will be on how to ensure the number of visits to hospitals is reduced for this high risk category population. As for treating of most major NCDs, patients normally land up at tertiary care hospitals. The experts will be looking at how to adjust dosage of certain medicines such as in case of chemotherapy so that the side-effects are minimized ..... In case of dialysis also we are trying to see how to optimize the benefits that could cut the number of visits,” said Dr Mathur.
Experts in the field welcomed the idea.
“This change is the need of the hour; I am also consulting several patients using digital medium, but there are no guidelines as such to refer to. Smaller centres in the periphery can take care of a patient’s immediate requirements... the process will get standardized if there are centre-issued SOPs in place,” says Dr PK Julka, senior medical oncologist, Max Healthcare.